


Snippets

by newtmasdoesthedo



Series: Well, except Newt. He calls me Tommy. [12]
Category: The Maze Runner (2014), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-25 18:54:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 81
Words: 64,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2632571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newtmasdoesthedo/pseuds/newtmasdoesthedo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically just all the snippets I write when people send me stuff on tumblr or I just feel like doing something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Waking up in your arms

**Author's Note:**

> [whochangedmylife](http://whochangedmylife.tumblr.com) asked: "Whenever newt and thomas fight they both refuse to sleep on the chouch so they go to sleep on different sides of the bed but newt still wakes up with thomas arms wrapped around him while newt holds his hand okay bye"

Newt’s immediate reaction when he woke up was groaning. His head was pounding and it felt like it had been filled with exactly as much cotton as it could possibly take and then having about three kilos of cement added to that. It was pure agony, and his first thought was going to the bathroom and getting some painkillers. Only problem was that he was locked in a vicelike grip that could only stem from his boyfriend. He squirmed around to look at Thomas’ sleeping face, and then last night came crashing back.   
  
Another groan.  
  
Fighting your boyfriend drunk should come with an undo-option. He didn’t even remember exactly what it had been about, just that it had been something with Brenda and Newt being jealous, and there’d definitely been things thrown. So how had he ended up here? He didn’t recall any make-up sex, and he was pretty certain they’d gone to sleep on completely different sides of the bed. He huffed softly, glaring at Thomas’ stupid face, because even though Thomas wasn’t as tall as he was, he was still way stronger, and Newt was quite certain he wouldn’t get away from the bloody bastard without waking him. So he did. Deep breath, closing his eyes,  **"Wake up you stupid bugger!"**  
  
And Thomas grunted and jolted awake, grunt turning into a whine halfway. “What was that for? Where’s the fire?”  
  
Newt just smirked happily. That was all he wanted to accomplish. “I have a headache and you flirted with Brenda last night. Get me painkillers and make me breakfast.” he demanded, not sure that Thomas would obey, but managing to keep a straight face and play the role.  
  
Thomas looked at him, puzzled, but ended up nodding, standing up and disappearing for a couple of minutes, returning with a glass of water and some painkillers. Newt took them, and the brunette gingerly kissed his hair, as though he wasn’t sure if Newt was still angry. Newt rolled his eyes and tipped his head up so he could peck Thomas on the lips. “Scrambled.” he stated, then he flopped back down and fell back asleep with Thomas’ beaming face etched into his mind, allowed to get a half hour of sweet sleep before breakfast and finally make-up sex.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas adores Newt's cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [jamesrogersx:](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/102077322835/jamesrogersx-i-just-really-want-something-where) I just really want something where Thomas has a Thing for kissing Newt’s cheeks.
> 
> Like they just look so soft and kissable and Thomas can’t help himself. He kisses Newt’s cheek in the morning when they get up and when Newt does something cute and when he’s pouting and basically just whenever Thomas feels like it.
> 
> And Newt rolls his eyes like “seriously?” but secretly he thinks it’s cute and it makes him smile and sometimes he even giggles which really only encourages Thomas to do it more.
> 
> newmas cheek kisses

Newt actually really enjoyed when Thomas would kiss his cheeks. There was something about the tender way Thomas would hover over his face, lips just barely touching him, that managed to make his heart jump every. single. time.  
  
It wasn’t sexual, not necessarily although it often ended up that way, it was more like the intense intimacy of the gesture, and of course the hovering touch. The way Thomas’ lips only just touched him, confusing the nerves in his skin on whether or not more pressure would be applied.  
  
Of course it was Thomas, so the moments often got ruined by a huge-ass bloody smooch or Thomas blowing a raspberry onto his skin or just randomly making weird farting sounds on his skin, but in its own weird way, that was adorable as well, because Newt always found his eye roll severely invalidated by the huge smile that overtook his features. “You’re such a bloody dork.”  
  
"Your bloody dork."   
  
Another eye roll. “You betcha.”


	3. Stepping on headphones is stupid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas stepped on his headphones. Good for him that there's a cute blonde working at the tech store.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For [5secondsofnewtmas](http://5secondsofnewtmas.tumblr.com/)

"Uh… I think this is broken." Thomas says as he enters, unsure if he’s even in the right place, because honestly, electronics was never his thing. He looks around, uncertain what to do with the endless amount of speakers and computers and phones.  
  
Newt looks up from the counter, eyes zooming in on a brunette that looks more confused than anyone he’s ever seen here. People who come into the store usually know stuff about what they’re here for. This guy obviously doesn’t. He looks disoriented, disgruntled and other dis-words that Newt obviously can’t focus on when the guy is standing there, looking confused in the most adorable way.

  
And he shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t, but Newt wants to save him.

  
He’s adorable in his confusion, brown eyes looking like they’re trained on something distant, but Newt recognizes that they’re trained on him, and it takes all he has not to laugh.

  
He’s never seen anyone look so confused. It’s adorable really. He’s not sure exactly how to explain how everything works, but he wants to.

  
So he’s silent. He tries not to laugh, because it’s tempting, but he doesn’t want to, so he waits, standing behind the counter, and he limits himself to cocking an eyebrow at the cute stranger, and after a couple of minutes of staring the guy moves over, and Newt  _definitely_  doesn’t hold his breath for a bit.

  
"My headphones are broken."            

  
Newt almost laughs, because everyone’s headphones or earplugs or  _whatever_  are broken when they come in here. “Okay.” he says, because what else can he say apart from “please go out with me!” and that’s obviously not a real option.

  
"They won’t play my music." the guy says, and this time Newt actually swallows a lump, because he didn’t know that people could be this cute and this stupid at the same time.

  
"Okay. When did they break?" he asks, trying to be professional, although honestly, he can’t be expected to, because this person has about a thousand moles and tan skin, and Newt wants to count and lick every inch.

  
"Uh. I may have stepped on them."

  
Newt closes his eyes for a couple of seconds.  _Are you for real?_

 _  
_"You… _stepped_  on them?”” he asks, controlling his voice, because this guy is  _pretty_  and he doesn’t want to let him know exactly how ridiculous coming here after doing that is.

  
The dude hesitates for a couple of seconds. “Yeah… Yeah. That wasn’t good.”

  
Newt stares at him for a couple of seconds, unable to come up with an answer that expresses clearly how adorably stupid this person is. “Yeah. That wasn’t good.” he says, because what else is he supposed to say?

  
"Yeah. Yeah it wasn’t." the brunette says, looking at his shoes, before seemingly making a decision, "Can you fix it?" He asks, and even if Newt decided that he’s ridiculous, that he’s stupid and wonderful and ’ _what the hell is wrong with a person if they admit that they’ve actually ruined something themselves?’!_ perfect. Newt takes a deep breath.

  
"I can’t, but I’ll give you a discount on a pair of new ones." he says, and the brunette lights up.  "If you’ll go out with me." and he knows that he’s playing with fire. He may even get fired, but the amber eyes and the brown hair and the dimples and the moles are too much, and Newt finds that he can’t even make himself care if he’s gambling, he has to try. This is a game he’s gotten addicted to way too fast.

  
And he didn’t think it was possible, but the brunette lights up even more, his smile stretching even further across his face, and Newt realizes in that exact second that he’ll fix anything this guy wants him to - without even knowing his name yet - as long as he’s certain he’ll see him again.


	4. Play me like a violin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas joined a music school some years ago - it's the best thing he ever did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [wildchildbrat](http://wildchildbrat.tumblr.com) asked: "i don't think my ask went through a couple days ago but I was telling you about this little music school I pass by on my way home and I had never gotten the name but when we passed yesterday the sign read "Green Bean Academy of Music" and immediately my mind was "Tommy. . .? Newt? Minho?" "which one learned piano? which one had violin and the clarinet or flute??" and yea I'm Marie by the way hiya!"

Thomas could watch Newt play the violin forever. Thomas had probably spent something close to forever watching Newt play the violin, at least that was what Minho claimed.  
  
Starting at the Green Bean Academy of Music had been a spur-of-the-moment sort of decision. Thomas hadn’t really  _needed_ teaching per say, he’d had a lot of it and he was pretty decent when he came there, but he had extra time on his hands and you could always get better, right? Besides his therapist told him that musical therapy could be good for his ADHD, and seeing as Thomas had always sort of considered music his safe space where he could finally get the clutter out of his head, he’d taken the chance.  
  
It had been the best decision ever.  
  
The Academy mainly focused on three things: Flute, violin and piano. The classes were separate, so it took some time before Thomas finally got around to talking to the pretty blonde he’d walked into two doors staring after.  
  
Minho sort of just came along because he was Newt’s best friend. In the beginning Thomas had been insanely jealous, thinking that they were dating, but Newt’s constant joking about Minho’s playing the flute (the Asian hated it, it seemed a constant strain to him to try to convince people that flutes were actually pretty cool and he hadn’t chosen it himself) had somehow convinced him that he was okay.  
  
It had taken another two years before he finally got the guts to invite Newt out.  
  
Actually it had taken two years of mindless pining and Minho locking them into a classroom together, but Thomas took care not to credit it to the tall fucker (he was happy enough taking credit himself anyway) because his ego was honestly big enough already. No amount of flute-jokes could ever stop that, unfortunately.  
  
The thing was, Thomas was happier than he’d ever been, and now he had two safe-spaces. Watching Newt play and playing himself. And things were cool. For all their teasing they knew that Minho was a really cool guy and that the flute was actually a seriously impressive instrument to master (“I also play the guitar.” “Whatever flute-boy.” “Fine, Teresa,  _you_  play the flute, see how easy it is.”)  
  
And Newt. Everything about him from the way the sun would shine through the East window and make his hair glow while he played to the way he frowned when he had troubles with a particularly difficult piece, to the way he looked almost peaceful with his eyes closed, playing the incredibly intricate parts he’d memorized, nimble fingers drawing the sweetest notes Thomas had ever hard from the instrument. The way chocolate eyes lit up when he got inspired. Thomas had never been more in love, and he was pretty sure he never would be.  
  
So when they started composing stuff together Thomas spent almost every wake moment marveling that things could actually get better. He took students, not many, but a clumsy, hilarious fella who called himself Frypan (Thomas was honestly scared to ask) and a quirky kid called Chuck, and Thomas had never been happier when Newt slipped in after a lesson and put his hands on Thomas’ shoulders, listening to him play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus because I’m trash:  
> Newt and Thomas pranking people by doing a really heartfelt violin-and-piano cover of a song, and after a while Gally just blinks and goes: … Is that… is that Nasty Girl?  
> And Alby just FREAKS because YOU’RE RUINING THE CONCERT and Minho is laughing his ASS off on the floor with Frypan, Teresa and Chuck because he dared them to do it.


	5. It was gonna be forever but now forever ain't as long

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt is reaped for the Hunger Games. Thomas can't have that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Anonymous](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/101217660195/newmas-au-where-they-live-in-district-11-together-and) asked: "Newmas au where they live in district 11 together and have been best friends for their whole lives. Newt gets reaped to be in the hunger games and Thomas volunteers to go with him and try to protect him. Involves lots of hysterical crying, angst, and “I (always have and always will) love you”s"

Thomas’ heart stops beating the second Newt’s name is called. His gaze snaps towards Newt’s family, and he feels like he’s going to puke his gut out right here. Newt’s sister is crying into her mother’s skirt, not old enough to understand exactly what’s happening, but old enough to understand that it sure as hell isn’t good. Without knowing where he’s going, she knows that she probably won’t see her brother again, and even if that was all it was for Thomas, he still wouldn’t be able to allow that. Even if he didn’t love Newt, he couldn’t allow this little girl to lose her brother. So he starts pushing, and he feels his heart pounding in his ears, fighting back the nausea that threatens to close up his throat. He needs to yell. He needs to make sure that he goes, because this is not right. Newt can’t go. He injured his foot, he won’t last a week there, and Newt is tough as nails, Thomas knows that, Newt could work for the rest of his life and be fine, but there will be careers there, and just the thought… He almost trips when that thought hits him, but he makes himself go on, because if he stops now… he can’t stop now.  
  
He focuses on his breath, keeps pushing, and people have started moving. They know what’s happening. They know that he needs to save his best friend. They know everything and yet they know nothing, and Newt has made it to the stage by now, and Thomas can’t let him. He feels those chocolate brown eyes on his, and he knows that Newt is trying to will him to shut up, to stay back, but he won’t. He meets those eyes, and they’re begging him to shut up, but he won’t, he can’t.  
  
"I’m going! I’m going there, I’m taking his place!" he calls, and he’s proud that his voice isn’t cracking.  
  
Effie Trinket stares at him in wonder. “Excuse me? Do we have a volunteer?”  
  
Newt is going for the mic, but Thomas yells before he can get there. “Yes! I volunteer. I want to be a tribute. Let me do the games.”  
  
Newt visibly deflates, and Thomas feels his eyes sting. He can hear his mother screaming in the background, and he’s sorry. He hates what he’s doing to her, but he can’t let Newt go. He loves Newt, and he hasn’t got to say it, but maybe now, knowing that he won’t come back, he’ll find that last ounce of selfish courage to tell him. All these thoughts run through his head in only seconds, and he doesn’t even hear who’s the other tribute. He doesn’t pay attention until he hears Newt’s voice.  
  
"I volunteer." he says, in that characteristic accent of his, and Thomas’ head snaps upwards, and he’s blinded by sorrow and rage. He can feel that he’s screaming, but he can’t stop, and the only thing that actually makes the way through the haze of fury and fear and sorrow are 10 words. "I love you, Tommy. You don’t get to leave me."


	6. Love is what I got for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas doesn't think much about love. Newt does. They manage to find exactly what they need in each other.

Thomas didn’t really think much about love. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, he just wasn’t the type to ponder on stuff like that. He was fine alone, and he wouldn’t be pursuing a relationship just for the sake of having one.

Newt always wanted to meet someone whose heart would skip when they met him. He wanted someone who lost their breath when he walked into the room. Someone to look at him and know they wanted no one else for the rest of their life.

When Thomas met Newt, his heart stopped beating and started pounding. His blood stopped flowing and started pulsing. and with every skipped beat he fell further and further in love.

When Newt met Thomas, his world was turned upside down. He caught himself smiling for no reason, he felt his eyes hanging onto Thomas, he could think of no one else, and he didn’t want to. He’d never expected to actually get everything he wanted. To get his heart stolen and not wanting it back.


	7. Kids are scary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas does not know how to kid. Thomas is basically a big child himself. Newt's niece comes to visit.

Thomas looked up from his book when Laura walked over and tugged at his sleeve. “Yes?” he asked tentatively, nervous because really how did Newt even consider it a good idea to leave Thomas with his sister’s daughter? The amount of damage he could do to a child definitely outweighed the amount of good he could do as a responsible caretaker. Thomas had no idea how to deal with children.  
Zero.  
Zilch.  
Nada.  
  
So when he saw that one blonde pigtail was cut off and the kid was  _bawling_ her eyes out he felt his heart sink. Oh fuck. Oh FUCK. Oh majorest fuck in the history of fucks.  
  
"I cutted it and it came off!" the kid wailed, and Thomas started laughing nervously, hoping that maybe if he showed her that he wasn’t panicking about it, she wouldn’t either.  
  
"Don’t worry about it, Laura, it’s just hair, it’ll come back out! I’ve heard that… uh… that kind of cut is in fashion." he stated, trying to mask his terror from the 4 year old.  
  
Laura stared at him for a couple of seconds, obviously trying to work out what he meant, only to start crying harder, reaching her arms up towards him, and the slow feeling of dread was replaced by a huge ass tsunami of dread. She wanted him to hold her. M A J O R F U C K.   
  
He cleared his throat, putting his book down. “You know what, Laura, let me just go get your uncle Newt, yeah?”  
  
He didn’t really expect the hysteric  _scream_ that released from the small girl. “NO!” and Thomas didn’t know what to do, because Laura usually adored Newt. Newt was great with kids. Newt was a natural caretaker. Newt was the type that kids went to so he could blow on their owie even if it was just a random kid at the playground. Newt just radiated stuff like that.  
  
Thomas radiated the clear fact that if he was ever going to change a toddler he was probably going to pick them up by one leg and shake them, hoping that if he said please enough times he wouldn’t have to.  
  
So he didn’t pick her up straight away, instead he stood up and stared at the girl, frozen in terror. Which of course only made her scream louder.  
  
"What the bloody hell is happening out there, Tommy?" Newt called from the kitchen, and Thomas felt relief flood him.  
  
"Erh, Laura kind of cut her hair on accident, but she’s fine. Can you come calm her down, babe?" he asked, looking down as Laura had moved in to clutch at his leg and pull at it, working herself into hysterics.  
  
"I didn’t cutted it on purpose!!!" she screamed, crying harder, and Thomas squeezed his eyes shut.   
  
Newt didn’t come into the living room, and Thomas’ heart sank further. “Just pick her up and bring her out here, I have my hands full.” Newt called, and Thomas sighed, looking down at the human siren hugging his knees as though she was scared he was going to leave.  
  
In the end he bent down and scooped her into his arms, walking into the kitchen, and on the short trip from the living room to the kitchen Laura’s wails turned into soft sniffling. Thomas was completely and utterly baffled. He walked up next to Newt, completely silent in his shock, and stopped there, hoping that his boyfriend would finally turn around. Which he did, only to get this weird look on his face.  
  
"What?" Thomas asked, wondering if Laura had managed to cut his hair without him noticing.  
  
Newt smiled softly, biting his lower lip. “I was just thinking… how about we look into adoption?”  
  
And it was a good thing Newt was the natural caretaker, because when Thomas almost dropped the kid in shock, Newt was there, catching her. “Okay maybe we wait a couple of years.”


	8. I'll protect you from the dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt has nightmares where he loses Thomas. Thomas is there to comfort him when he wakes up.

Newt sits up abruptly, gasping for breath, and he can feel the cold sweat on his skin. He’s terrified. He’s never had a more realistic dream, every emotion, everything, it just felt so real, and the tears in his eyes sting because  _oh God that just might happen some day._  Being left alone with no Thomas would be the worst thing that could happen to him, and he feels frantically next to him, putting a hand on Thomas’ warm chest without even thinking about the fact that he might wake him up. He just needs to make sure he’s there and breathing.  
  
And he is. Thomas is warm and alive, and Newt’s body is still shaking, but at least the panic is slowly subsiding, although it’s creeping fingers have yet to release their grip on his chest. Thomas grunts next to him, something unintelligible, and if Newt hadn’t been so out of it he’d probably have noted that it’s really cute. Thomas isn’t really the type to wake up coherent. When he’s pulled into a warm embrace he’s still trembling, and that seems to wake his boyfriend up a bit more. “Newt? What’s happening?” he yawns, and Newt hides his face in Thomas’ neck, burying it there as though he could force the world to leave him alone. Thomas is moving again, he’s leaning on one elbow and looking down at Newt. “Nightmare?”  
  
He nods.  
  
"Which one?"  
  
Newt swallows, willing his voice not to shake (but failing miserably.) “The one where you drown and I can’t get to you in time.” he mutters, and Thomas lies down next to him again, on his back, and he pulls at Newt until he’s lying on top of him.  
  
And then strong arms are wrapped around him, and Thomas is kissing his hair. Newt is just lying there, listening to Thomas’ heartbeat, his cheek pressed to hot skin. “I’m not going to drown. I’m not going to leave, and I’m never going to die from you. I’ll be here forever, you’ll never get rid of me, even if you try.” he says, and Newt can hear the soft smile in his voice at that last part. He glares slightly, but the trembling is starting to ebb from his body in the agonizingly slow flow of a small lazy creek. If it’d only disappear in the violent waves that it always arrives in. “I love you. I’m not a therapist, I don’t know what that dream’s supposed to mean, but if it’s because you’re scared I’m going to leave, don’t be. I’d be an idiot to ever leave you.” he whispers, and he’s kind enough to ignore the silent tear that runs from the corner of Newt’s eye only to drip down on his chest.  
  
"I love you too." Newt whispers, and Thomas kisses his hair sleepily yet again, pulling him closer, and Newt gets the point and moves his face so Thomas can kiss his lips.  
  
If Thomas has to whisper nonsense against Newt’s lips for the next hour, so be it. Newt doesn’t know it, but he has saved Thomas from drowning a thousand times over.


	9. You're my finish line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something happened back at the Glade - Thomas gets his priorities straight and runs like he never has before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by [this gorgeous piece of art.](http://duskler.tumblr.com/post/99900917086/because-every-runner-needs-a-finish-line-uwu)

Thomas wasn’t sad about being a Runner. Most of the time he wasn’t even scared. He was only scared that he wouldn’t make it home. The Maze in itself was weirdly familiar and he’d never gotten lost in there.  
  
The thing Thomas had buckets of was  _drive_ , and in the beginning he hadn’t really realized what it was that drove him. After the Changing he’d somehow just thought that it had something to do with guilt. He knew the Maze, he’d helped build it, he’d put these people - his friends - here, and he felt horrible for it. So he assumed that that was why. Then he’d wised up.  
  
That one day when a scream was heard, a scream he shouldn’t have been able to hear, he’d realized. It had been a punch to the gut like nothing he’d ever felt before.  
 __  
"Something happened back at the camp!"  
  
Icy tendrils of fear crawled up his spine and into his stomach, trying to take over his lungs and make it impossible to run, but Thomas powered through. He needed to get back. He needed to make sure they were okay.   
 __  
Newt.  
  
He needed to make sure Newt was okay, and he didn’t want to cry, he’d spent enough time being confused and scared, he wasn’t going to break down now. He  _needed_  to make it, and he would. His feet flew over the ground, he felt like he wasn’t even touching it, and while he knew that he’d never run this fast in his life, it felt like he’d never been slower.  
  
Everything was slowed down, like he was forcing his way through icy water, and his entire body was cold,  _so_ cold, and he knew that if anything had happened to him, if anything had happened to Newt, this cold would never leave.  
  
He hadn’t realized he was yelling until he joined paths with Minho, not even acknowledging the Keeper of the Runners until Minho punched his arm  _hard._  “ _Stop_ screaming his shucking name, Greenie, you’re only going to draw more attention to us, if he’s not okay  _he’s not_ , do you understand? You’re not helping him by dragging a shuckload of Grievers with us to the Glade, so  _slim it.”_ and Minho’s voice was laced with pain too, and Thomas hated it.  
  
And Thomas did. He focused on breathing. he focused on something, anything, to get that icy feeling out of his lungs. he willed himself to keep breathing although it felt like every bit of oxygen that hit his lungs was laced with ice and pain.  
  
And then he could see the opening, and somehow the sight of his perfect blonde didn’t make him slow down, only push his body further, sprinting towards that shocked face, and he slammed straight into him, not caring one bit that he knocked them both to the ground, because his hands were behind Newt’s head, one ready to shield him from the impact and the other one stretched out to soften the impact.  
  
He hardly even heard Newt’s loud ‘oomf’ and the annoyed  _"What the bloody hell is wrong with you, Tommy?"_  
  
Because next thing he knew he was kissing Newt, kissing him like his life depended on it, because Newt was the only person who could take this pain away, he was the only heat to melt the ice, and Thomas couldn’t lose him. And he was right here. Warm and alive under Thomas, and slowly the ice seeped out of him, so slowly, and he couldn’t bring himself to stop covering Newt’s face with kisses, and now the blonde was kissing back.  
  
He couldn’t see Minho rolling his eyes, but he could hear it in his voice, “What a couple of klunk shanks, sucking faces like there’s no shucking tomorrow.”  
  
And Thomas didn’t even have time to flip him off, ‘cause his hands were feeling frantically all over Newt’s face and body, making sure that he was really there, that nothing bad had happened, and that was all he needed right now, everything else would work out later.  
  
It took them another ten minutes before they actually broke apart, and Thomas only vaguely sensed the others leaving, muttering, and when he pulled back to look at Newt’s face it was one of wonder.  
  
"Why the bloody hell did you just sprint here like a madman?"  
  
Thomas frowned, “Someone yelled that something had happened back here. I needed to make sure you were okay.”  
  
An expression mirroring his own spread on Newt’s face. “Nothing happened here. Who yelled?”  
  
Thomas sat up, helping Newt who seemed a bit stiff in the body. “Sorry about that by the way. I… I don’t know. I just panicked.”  
  
And then Newt smirked, and he stood up, reaching down for Thomas to help him up. “Well, we’ll figure it out. Glad to know you just made the sprint of your life without even having a finish line.”  
  
And it slipped without Thomas even wanting it to. “You’re my finish line.”


	10. Be my promdate?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt are going stag on prom. Which is nice. But Thomas sort of wants a date. He's just not sure how to ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [whochangedmylife](http://whochangedmylife.tumblr.com) asked: "Just drunkenly thinking about a Newtmas prom au"

Thomas is so nervous to ask Newt to prom. They’ve never even held hands. They’re just friends who don’t date other people. Just two buddies with a very special bond that neither of them can really explain.  
  
They’re not dating, but they don’t need anyone else. It’s unspoken, but most people know that that’s just the way it is.  
  
“You’re staring again.” Newt states, not even looking up from his book.  
  
“Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking about prom again.”  
  
Newt flips to the next page. “Yeah? How come?”  
  
“Isn’t it weird that we don’t have any dates? I mean, I’m pretty good looking and you’re so smart and witty and hot, and you got that whole British thing going for you.  
Newt snorts with laughter and flips another page. His reading-speed has always been ridiculous. “They’re probably just waiting for you to bloody ask, Tommy. But I thought just you and me going together was fine with both of us?”  
  
Thomas nods and looks down. Newt seems pretty indifferent, and he’s not sure he likes that. “I am. I don’t want to ask any of them. It just seems wrong to go to your senior prom without a date.”  
  
“Then be my date.”  
  
Newt doesn’t even look up, which is good, because then maybe he doesn’t notice that Thomas actually managed to drool some of the water he’d just been trying to drink into his lap like the major dork he is. “For real? Like… Like a date-date?”  
  
“Are there any not date-dates that I’m not bloody aware off, Tommy?” He asks, finally closing his book and making eye-contact. Thomas focuses on not choking. “Thomas Green, will you please be my prom date, and then in ten years or so we can get married if they don’t find a way to make it illegal again, and then we’ll adopt a baby of each race and get a mini-van? I’m liking the names Marie, Lara and Alexandre for some. But I’m open for debate.”  
  
Thomas glares at him. “Very funny, you fucking jerk. I thought you were serious.”  
  
Newt’s face turns a shade softer, more genuine, and he smiles and looks down. “I was, Tommy. About the first part, that is.”  
  
Thomas just rolls his eyes and takes another drink of water. “Right.”  
  
Then Newt groans in exasperation and Thomas feels surprisingly strong fingers take a hold of his chin, moving his face upwards and oh God Newt is so close. “Be my promdate, ya stupid bugger.” He says, and then scorching lips is on his in a way that sends his insides a-flying, and the sound he makes into Newt’s mouth is absolutely humiliating.  
  
“Can’t believe I just had to snog you silly to get you to shut up.” He mutters, amused, and Thomas can do nothing but stare at him in a daze.  
  
“Do you kiss all your friends like that?”  
  
Newt smirks, reopening his book, “I think we’ve both known for a while that you’re a lot more than my bloody friend, haven’t we, Tommy?”


	11. Bringing stuff to the table

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas had never expected to find himself at a Cotillion - but he finds that he doesn't mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was for my [wifey](http://onemaytolerateaworldfullofdemons.tumblr.com) RIGHT after I got into the fandom. She was the one who dragged me (willingly, but still) to watch Maze Runner. You can blame her for all of this.

Thomas had never in his life expected to go to a Cotillion. He’d never wanted to either. Going with Teresa was mostly something he did to get their bother of a mother of his back and because he knew Newt was going to be there.  
  
Teresa’s date was Chuck, and even though Thomas mostly suspected that it was out of pity at least he knew that as long as his sister was with Chuck he could spend his time pleasantly buzzed with his best friend without having to be protective.  
  
He wanted to take care of Teresa, but if he could have fun with Newt while she was doing the chicken-dance with Chuck it was all the better.  
  
Slightly buzzed and happy (okay pretty drunk and euphoric), Thomas smiled at Newt. “Hey man?”  
  
The blonde smiled at him. “Yeah mate? You having a good time?”  
  
"Bloody great time." Thomas mocked, and Newt rolled his eyes leaning closer.  
  
"You making fun of me? You’re a bloody freshman, you’re only here because your sister brought you and because I’m the chair of the party planning committee. What are you bringing to the table?"  
  
And Thomas couldn’t help himself. This had to be it. This was what real flirting was supposed to be like. This was fun and light and lovely and Newt was very close. His breath was warm and those brown eyes made Thomas’ heart flutter, so when Newt cocked his eyebrow he didn’t even feel insecure. Maybe it was the alcohol - maybe his instincts just told him that the time had finally arrived. He closed the distance between them, muttering “this” and pressed his lips against Newt’s.


	12. Who's in love with you now? I swear to God, I am.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas doesn't need Newt to say those magic three words, because Newt says it wordlessly every day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. [This happened](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/104090145510/people-say-i-love-you-without-actually-saying-it) so this happened.  
> 2\. Title stolen from Childish Gambino's The Longest Text Message.

Thomas didn’t really need Newt to say he loved him. He knew that Newt had his issues. He knew that his boyfriend had lost people that mattered to him, and he knew that if Newt told him that he loved him, that would mean Newt being scared of losing him. He didn’t need all that.  
  
It was fine, because Newt didn’t have to say it. He didn’t have to say the exact words, because he said them in little things. The way he’d tell Thomas to drive home safe. The way he’d tell him to put his seatbelt on because  _I don’t care if it’s just two miles, Tommy, you might as well crash on a short distance as well as a long one._  The way Newt always offered his last fries when he saw Thomas eyeing his food after having finished his own  _You eat like a grown bear, I’m surprised you stay this fit. Jeez, would you stop bloody staring at my food?! … Fine. You can have them._    
  
The way he always made sure Thomas wore his coat (and his gloves and his beanie and his scarf and like twenty layers of sweaters).  _I don’t have time to baby you if you get a cold, you’re so bloody whiny, put it on. I know you think scarves itch around your neck, but I don’t care._  
  
The way Newt would pull him closer by said scarf when Thomas was complaining, smiling into the kiss when Thomas murmured something lame about wanting to stay home and share bodyheat instead.  
  
The first time Newt introduced him to Minho and Alby and he was so nervous that Thomas wouldn’t like them or that they wouldn’t like him. The way he lit up when Thomas and Minho started cracking jokes. The way he asked Thomas to take care of his baby sister if he had to get the groceries while she was there. The way he trusted him even though his decisions didn’t always make sense, like that time where he invested in a stock that was being treated as though it was doomed by the entire stock-market and ended up making them a small fortune. The way Newt told him that they didn’t  _need_ to move into that fancy new apartment unless Thomas really wanted to, because Newt had all he needed right here.   
  
But most of all the way Newt’s eyes lit up when Thomas told him that he loved him. The way he’d kiss him, bury his face in his neck, hum a soft ‘you too, you bloody nerd’. The way Newt looked at night when Thomas woke up and ended up waking him by accident because he was moving around, trying to get comfortable again. The way Minho and Alby looked at them when they were all out together, that told Thomas that Newt had never been this way with anyone before.  
  
"I love you, Newt."  
  
"You too, you bloody sap."


	13. Screaming from the top of your lungs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Well, I was actually planning to do some reading. This is a really good book. I’m Newt by the way," he said, holding up a tablet and show Thomas the ebook he was apparently reading.
> 
> Thomas shrugged. “I could read it with you?” he suggested, blinking in surprise when Newt lit up in a huge smile.
> 
> “Do you often share a book with people before telling them your bloody name? That seems terribly rude.”
> 
> Thomas grinned sheepishly. “Wouldn’t want to be rude. I’m Thomas.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Yet another snippet from my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) come say hi!.  
> 2\. Inspired by [this ask](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/107219603065/newtmas-au-where-they-both-get-kicked-out-of-their) by a very lovely person.  
> 3\. Unbetaed.

Thomas had never talked to his next-door neighbours before. He’d noticed them, of course, because the blondie was absolutely gorgeous and the black dude seemed perpetually angry. It was hard not to notice, especially seeing as he sometimes insisted having screaming-contests with his equally angry boyfriend, who Thomas of course had spoken to. Mostly because Gally resented Thomas for getting a spot on the soccer team when Gally didn’t. He claimed it had been cheating.

There was another kind of screaming going on today, though, which was sort of awkward but also sort of didn’t matter that much because as far as Thomas could tell Minho and Ben were well on their way to do some screaming and grunting on their own. Minho, of course, was Thomas’ best friend and a major slut. Ben was his on-and-off fuckbuddy. Thomas’ relationship with Ben was strained due to soccer-rivalry, but apart from that Thomas didn’t need much more reason than not wanting to listen to them have sex to dislike the guy. He was particularly loud, and the smug smiles Minho always sent Thomas after a particularly loud night told him more things about his best friend’s sexual proves than he would ever want to know. 

Oops, there Minho’s shirt went. Lovely. Thomas was really not into this whole public thing, but judging from the amount of times he’d caught the two of them they certainly did. They weren’t going to stop on his account, so in the end he huffed with annoyance, kicked at Minho’s shin on his way out of their shared room and slammed the door behind him.

He hadn’t expected there to be someone. It was pretty late after all, but obviously blondie couldn’t sleep either, which made great sense because Alby and Gally were so loud they could be heard even out here. “Hi,” he muttered, feeling awkward at how blatantly both their friends were showcasing their sexlives.

"Hi," blondie grumbled, and Thomas scratched his hair slightly. Awkward. Really. Fucking. Awkward.

"So," Thomas started, unsure of how to proceed, because what the hell did you make smalltalk about in this situation? He hadn’t been smart enough to bring a book. "Uhm. Wanna do something?" _Instead of listening to our friends bang._

The blonde frowned slightly, looking a tiny bit confused and he cocked his head a bit. “What did you have in mind?”

Thomas shrugged helplessly.

"Well, I was actually planning to do some reading. This is a really good book. I’m Newt by the way," he said, holding up a tablet and show Thomas the ebook he was apparently reading.

Thomas shrugged. “I could read it with you?” he suggested, blinking in surprise when Newt lit up in a huge smile.

“Do you often share a book with people before telling them your bloody name? That seems terribly rude.”

Thomas grinned sheepishly. “Wouldn’t want to be rude. I’m Thomas.”


	14. First year, Greenie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas arrives at Hogwarts for the very first time - and he's terrified. Luckily, there's a certain blond with a smile to make him forget just how scared he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Inspired by [firstyear-greenie's](http://firstyear-greenie.tumblr.com) url because it just reads Harry Potter/TMR to me.  
> 2\. And it fits perfectly with my HP-AU.  
> 3\. And this just sort of happened.   
> 4\. Sorry for not posting for two million years, I'll get back to it soon, promise. I've been crazy busy and ill and blargh.  
> 5\. Come say hi on my [tumblr!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com)

Thomas wasn't scared of magic, being a half-blood and all. He'd taken time between visiting his father's sort-of-odd-even-by-wizard-standards family and his mother's very-big-and-very-caring muggle family in the summers, so he knew enough about both worlds to know that both Muggle technology and Wizard magic were neutral forces that conveyed only the forces that the humans behind them wanted them to.  
  
That didn't prevent him from being scared out of his mind when he realized that they'd have to cross a giant lake in the dark in tiny, rocky boats. Especially after that mean bloke Gally started spewing stories about the Giant Squid while him and Ben Ashwood sneered and laughed at anyone near them. When that freakishly tall Asian boy rolled his eyes and told Ben to shut up (and glared at Gally until he did too) the damage was already done and Thomas felt like he might just make a run for the forest, although he knew that it probably held more dangers.  
  
Jorge, the Keeper of Keys, ushered the children towards the boats, and in the rush Thomas caught a glimpse of the blonde he'd talked to on the train here, and he started pushing through the crowd, desperate to be amongst someone he'd at least talked to. He could tell that the blond and the freakishly tall Asian (was he really a first year? He seemed too tall, but then again, Thomas wasn't the best judge of character, age or anything really, his instincts about people hardly ever held true) were getting into one of the small boats, and there'd only be room for two more people. "Hey! Hold a seat!" He ended up calling over the crowd despite himself, and when the blond's face whipped towards him he felt a sort of calm roll over him. Newt - he hardly recalled the name because he'd been too busy talking to the guy to actually listen, excited about his new friend - was smiling at him. That grin sent a wave of reassurance through Thomas. They were going to make it. He was safe, and most important of all he was ready to begin his new life. When he pushed into the boat he realized that the grins that met him meant that he'd found his two first friends here.


	15. Oh baby baby it's a wild world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt wants to adopt a child but Thomas is not sure about it because in his mind the world is cruel and bad...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. As prompted by the lovely [simbas-infinity](http://simbas-infinity.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/110268414870/send-me-newtmas-prompts-and-ill-write-you-a/).  
> 2\. 502 words, I already failed at keeping them within the limits.  
> 3\. Lil' Skins reference for ya there in the title.

"A child."

"Yes, a child, Tommy."

Thomas frowned. "A child?"

An all-too-familiar eye roll, "Yes, a bloody child, is there something wrong with your hearing? I'm sorry, I just thought this was maybe a natural step for us, we've been together for six years, I thought you knew that I wanted a family."

Thomas shuffled a bit around on the couch, turning to face his boyfriend. "I... I'm just not sure it's such a good idea."

A low, long-suffering huff penetrated the silence before it could grow too long, too painful. "You'll be a wonderful father, Tommy, I have no doubt about that. Don't be nervous, everything will be fine, we'll learn together. We've talked about this before."

Brown eyes blinked a couple of times, showing exactly how off-guard Newt had actually caught him. "I know, but it was always sort of hypothetical, like... hey wouldn't it be fun to have a little guy running around here one day, yeah it would, bloody awesome," a soft punch on his shoulder, and Thomas flashed Newt a quick smile, "It's not like I don't want to have a family with you, I just don't think..."

Light eyebrows shot up, and Thomas found the words dying on his lips. "What?"

He cleared his throat. "Look," he started, trying to make his thoughts get in line, to find the right words, because he didn't want to hurt Newt, but he also knew that this was a conversation that he himself would've rather not had. Things had been happening lately, and hypothetical-Thomas and hypothetical-Newt lived in a world were bigotry and hate-crimes wasn't something to worry about, but real-life-Newt and real-life-Thomas lived in a world where that was very much a problem still, and something inside him was just quivering with terror at the thought of bringing someone else into their lives. They'd had enough insults thrown at them to last a life-time, and having a child subject to that? "It's not you or me I'm worried about, it's everyone else. You know how it is. You saw Minho's face after he got in a fight with those guys that yelled after us. What if our kid gets beat up at the playground? What if we can't protect it against the world?"

There was a tiny flicker of hope and sadness inside him when he saw understanding dawn on Newt. He wanted to be convinced that this could work, he did, but he was so scared of what it would mean to be a family. What if he'd fail? Newt was right, of course, in some way this was about him. This was about him being scared that he wouldn't be strong enough to protect a child. "Things are getting better for us, Tommy," the soft voice brought him back, and he swallowed slightly.

"I know... just... give me a couple of months to wrap my head around it. We'll talk about it again soon." he muttered, relief flooding through him when a warm hand squeezed his.


	16. Puppydog eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Puppy training classes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. As prompted by the lovely [hooked-on-a-killian](http://hooked-on-a-killian.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/110268414870/send-me-newtmas-prompts-and-ill-write-you-a/).  
> 2\. 499 words, woo!

"You’re not gonna get him to bloody roll."

"Aren’t you a ray of sunshine? Help me instead of just standing there staring at him! You’re making him nervous!"

The incredulousness Newt was radiating went way beyond the sarcasm in his voice. “I’m making a puppy nervous? By standing here? You’re stressing him out, you’re pressuring him. I wouldn’t jump if you talked to me in that tone of voice.”

"You’d never do something I say if I sucked your dick thrice a day."

A loud clearing-of-the-throat marked that the elderly couple training their puppy were not entirely pleased with the turn of the conversation, which just made Thomas smile wider, “And don’t even try to deny it, because I tried.”

If Newt had gotten any redder, Thomas would have probably started getting worried. One of his favorite things about Newt was that it took 0.5 seconds to get him from snarky-eye-rolling Newt to blushing-embarrassed Newt. All Thomas had to do was hint at their sex life in public, and Newt was reduced to a blushing mess. One of Thomas’ absolute favorite versions of him, only combated by sleepy-Newt, who got super duper cuddly and admitted to a lot of feelings he wouldn’t usually talk about. “Now get over here and help me, and I might try that method of persuasion out again.”

The blond managed to blush and roll his eyes at the same time, but he made his way over and kneeled next to his boyfriend. He had to admit, even though he’d been sort of reluctant about getting a pet (‘It’s enough I have to feed you, Tommy, we don’t need another puppy around here.’), he’d come to terms with the fact that he loved the little bugger. It was a stray, of course, Thomas had dragged him home and begged Newt to keep it if no one started looking for it. As weeks went by without anyone calling them about the dog (Thomas had contacted every newspaper and website that would listen), Thomas hadn’t even needed to push anymore, because Newt was learning to love the way that a very excited puppy would sprint out to greet him whenever he entered their apartment (how they’d get around the superintendant Gally finding out they had Polarbear, Newt didn’t know, but they’d figure it out). The name Polarbear was, of course, Thomas’ idea. The poor thing was all black, and Newt’s idiot boyfriend couldn’t come up with anything not-ridiculous, but somehow that just added to the little thing’s charm.

"Come on, you try. You know he adores you."

Sigh. Eye roll. Thomas kissed his cheek, and Newt’s decision to remain passive melted away with no resistance what-so-ever. Inwardly he scolded himself for being such a push-over when it came to Thomas. There’d never been anything he could do when the brunette looked at him like that.

A doggy-treat was pushed into his hand. He sighed, moving it in front of Polarbear’s face, and the little shit rolled.


	17. The truth shall be heard from children and drunks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt has been on a date. Thomas is drinking red wine and singing to Taylor Swift when the blond comes home to their dorm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Title is a Danish proverb. I googled it to see if there was an English version and accidentally found out that Danish people have a shitload of proverbs linked to alcohol. Go figure.  
> 2\. Idk this just hit me while I was listening to Taylor Swift.

_"And you were too afraid, to tell him what you want!"_

Newt blinked, confused, as he made his way into the common room. “Tommy? Is that Taylor Swift?”

"So what if it is? How was your date?" Thomas sniffled defensively, emptying the wine bottle clutched in his hand.

"Woah there, mate, you have class in the morning," Newt stated, side-stepping quickly when the bottle came flying, purposefully ignoring Thomas’ second question. The brunet obviously hadn’t been aiming at him, but he was clearly drunk off his head, "How about we get you to bed?"

Another loud burst of Taylor Swift lyrics and a hiccup later Thomas scrambled to get up. “‘s a good idea. You’re so smart. So smart.”

"Yup, bloody right I am, you, on the other hand, are stupid. Minho’s gonna kill you if you wake him up with that God-awful thing you call singing." Newt stated, bending down and dragging one of Thomas’ arms over his shoulder.

A huff. “Minho loves Taylor Swift. And he loves my singing. He just won’t admit it.”

The blond couldn’t keep in the small bark of laughter that found its way through his lips, “I’ll agree with you on the Taylor Swift thing, but I’m not sure about your singing. Why’d you get so trashed anyway?”

Thomas muttered something unintelligible for a while, batting at Newt’s hands when his friend helped unbuttoning his pants and dragged them down to his ankles. “You’re so stupid for a smart person.”

Huh? The Englishman looked up, furrowing his brows. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He snorted, managing to get Thomas to lift his foot and slipping the pant-leg off it. He needed all his focus, so his gaze found the other foot and he concentrated on that and making sure that Thomas didn’t suddenly slip. A small, warning growl tore from him when Thomas’ fingers laced in his hair, but the brunet didn’t pull, so obviously he didn’t do it to keep his balance. Instead he ran his fingers through it and kept on muttering drunkenly.

"So pretty hair. Looks like an angel. So blond."

There was obviously only one way to answer that - with a huff, so Newt pushed Thomas down to lie on the bed and rolled his eyes. “Jesus you’re drunk,” he snorted, ignoring the way his heartbeat had sped up. “And you still haven’t told me why you were on our floor spilling red wine on Alby’s carpet. He’s gonna be pissed.”

Thomas rolled over to his side, looking at Newt through lowered lashes, obviously on the brink of sleep. “I’m in love with you,” and Newt’s shock at the mumbled confession stunned him for just a few seconds too long, because the next sound heard was a loud snore from Thomas.

It took him a good few minutes to shake himself from the stupor and stop staring at the now peaceful-looking Thomas, before he went into the living-room to clean Alby’s carpet and wonder.


	18. Let me be your portable heater that you'd be cold without

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teresa doesn't come to the Glade, instead the days drag on and on, and Thomas' guilt is eating at him. Good thing he has Newt to comfort him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [chartreusestripes](http://chartreusestripes.tumblr.com/) on [Tumblr!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/)  
> 2\. Title from Arctic Monkeys' 'I Wanna Be Yours' which I am currently obsessed with.  
> 3\. Unbetaed, you know how it goes.

It had taken a long time, but things were coming back to him after the Changing. Slowly the puzzle-pieces started to connect, and Thomas almost considered getting himself stung again just to see if anything else would return to him. The problem was, he wasn't certain he wanted the rest of the truth. The parts he'd already learned were terrifying. He was a monster and he'd long since accepted that.

That Newt hadn't dumped him when he found out what part Thomas had played in their gruesome situation was a constant mystery to him. He hadn't, though. Newt had forgiven him almost instantly, but the days passed, and Thomas wasn't certain if he was just being paranoid or what was going on, but he was terrified that the other boys were starting to turn on him. He constantly heard whispers, which meant one of two things. A) He was going crazy. Or B) They were starting to turn on him. Or maybe he was just paranoid. At least that's what Newt told him.

But he could sympathize. He wasn't certain he'd be accepting and forgiving if he had been in their shoes. Minho and Newt treated him like always, of course, but the others... the others were different. Even Frypan had been a bit hesitant to talk to him in the beginning, although Thomas thought he might be coming around. Chuck had been overly nice, maybe sensing that Thomas felt horrible about the part he'd played in constructing this hellhole. It was eating at him to say the least, and the days dragged by with no prospect of escape. It was terrifying and devastating and Thomas wanted to die with how much this was all his fault.

Which meant running. Running even when he wasn't running in the maze. Running so hard and so fast that when he stopped running he all but collapsed. It had gotten worse over the past few days, he'd almost not seen Newt at all, but he couldn't help it. Every waking moment meant thinking about what he'd done and it just made him want to cry. Now he was here again, collapsed on the ground, shaking and curling in on himself, because what else could he do? He wasn't going to be crying his eyes out in front of the other boys, so he'd gone straight to his safe-place when he felt himself slipping, and now the gates were open. Tears were streaming down his face and there was nothing he could do to stop them, even as he heard the characteristic sound of Newt's limping footsteps.

"Tommy?"

The brunet sniffled slightly, hoping to clear his throat a bit before Newt had to hear it. He failed miserably of course, but hey, he'd had to try. "Yeah. Yeah sorry, I just needed a break. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he muttered, feeling how his throat constricted, feeling how he had to stop saying sorry right now unless he wanted to never stop apologizing again. He half-expected it, but he still found himself tensing up in brief surprise when he felt warm arms around him and he finally let go, sobbing into Newt's shoulder like there was no tomorrow, as the person who had become his rock held him tightly, moving just a little bit and rocking him back and forth as soft, comforting sounds left his lips, barely audible above Thomas' own sobs.

"I forgive you. We all forgive you. I know I'm not the only one who knows that you're not the same person any more. I love you, I know you're working the hardest you bloody can to get us all out of here. You're exhausting yourself, and I'm sorry that you feel like you have to do that," he muttered, moving his hand with the ratty old hoodie covering his hand to softly wipe the tears off of Thomas' face. "I love you. I still love you, Tommy, that won't change."


	19. Like magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas has just arrived to Hogwarts, and though he grew up with magic, having a muggle mother, the thought of crossing the Great Lake is just a little bit unnerving. Luckily two people are there to help him through it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I have a cool friend on tumblr called [firstyear-greenie](http://firstyear-greenie.tumblr.com) and I wrote this for her once, but forgot to post it here, oh no!  
> 2\. Prequel to [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2459462) and [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2438186/chapters/5400017)

Thomas wasn’t scared of magic, being a half-blood and all. He’d taken time between visiting his father’s sort-of-odd-even-by-wizard-standards family and his mother’s very-big-and-very-caring muggle family in the summers, so he knew enough about both worlds to know that both Muggle technology and Wizard magic were neutral forces that conveyed only the forces that the humans behind them wanted them to.  
  
That didn’t prevent him from being scared out of his mind when he realized that they’d have to cross a giant lake in the dark in tiny, rocky boats. Especially after that mean bloke Gally started spewing stories about the Giant Squid while him and Ben Ashwood sneered and laughed at anyone near them. When that freakishly tall Asian boy rolled his eyes and told Ben to shut up (and glared at Gally until he did too) the damage was already done and Thomas felt like he might just make a run for the forest, although he knew that it probably held more dangers.  
  
Jorge, the Keeper of Keys, ushered the children towards the boats, and in the rush Thomas caught a glimpse of the blonde he’d talked to on the train here, and he started pushing through the crowd, desperate to be amongst someone he’d at least talked to. He could tell that the blond and the freakishly tall Asian (was he really a first year? He seemed too tall, but then again, Thomas wasn’t the best judge of character, age or anything really, his instincts about people hardly ever held true) were getting into one of the small boats, and there’d only be room for two more people. “Hey! Hold a seat!” He ended up calling over the crowd despite himself, and when the blond’s face whipped towards him he felt a sort of calm roll over him. Newt - he hardly recalled the name because he’d been too busy talking to the guy to actually listen, excited about his new friend - was smiling at him. That grin sent a wave of reassurance through Thomas. They were going to make it. He was safe, and most important of all he was ready to begin his new life. When he pushed into the boat he realized that the grins that met him meant that he’d found his two first friends here.


	20. And it goes boom-boom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Potions class with the Gladers can be quite chaotic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Anon requested this on tumblr during one of my 300-500 word snippet challenges.  
> 2\. Bit messy because I wanted to get so many people in this as possible, it was fun!  
> 3\. Sequel to [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2459462) and [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2438186/chapters/5400017)  
> 4\. I'm not sorry at all.

"You have to measure it very carefully, Minho. Merlin, you're such an idiot!" Thomas didn't even have to turn his head to know that Teresa and Minho were fighting again. It was pretty much an every-day occurrence, so it was hardly worth it to even turn his head anymore. Besides Newt was wrinkling his nose at the foul smell coming from his and Gally's cauldron in a way that was absolutely adorable. Thomas waved at his boyfriend only to receive a slap over the back of his head.

"Ow! Brenda, why did you do that?!" Brenda smirked at him while Sonya and Harriet tried to hide their snickers behind their hands. This earned them a light shove from Rachel, who sent Thomas a fond smile.

"It's simple, really," Brenda explained, and Thomas found his own expression morphing into a scowl. He was just about to tell her to not speak to him as though he was a child, but she kept going, "You're supposed to brew a potion, Jorge will have your arse if you don't focus, and instead you're making gooey-eyes at your little boyfriend over there. I'd be jealous, except the two of you are sort of sickening. Anyway, unless you want that pretty hair burnt straight off your head I suggest you focus on stirring."

The boom of laughter told Thomas that Frypan and Chuck had been listening in, and he felt his entire face color. "Shut up, Brenda, I wasn't making gooey-eyes, I was just a little distracted. It's not like you're perfect either," he muttered, knowing that he was being a little whiny and childish.

"Actually," Frypan piped up, winking at Brenda exaggeratedly, "I think she's pretty damn close, homeboy."

Chuck's look of pure confusion luckily stole the attention from Thomas for a while, "What... did you just say?"

Minho grimaced from two tables over and threw a small piece of ginger at the food-enthusiast (who often sneaked into the kitchens to cook with the houseelves), "He's found a way to watch shitty American TV-shows in the dormroom, believe me, it's shuckin' agony."

"Minho!" Teresa's stern voice was the last thing heard before a loud boom filled the room, quickly followed by a foul, acrid smoke that somehow managed to have small pink lightnings flashing in it broke out.

"For the love of everything magical, get OUT of here! Minho, detention for the next year, muchacho, and don't be smart about it!" Jorge bellowed. The last part obviously wasn't necessary, because from what Thomas could see through the smoke, Teresa was busy beating at poor Minho's head with a book while he was panically tending to the top of his head, where his hair used to be.

The only thing stopping Thomas from doubling over laughing was that Newt was quickly beside him and gave his hand a soft squeeze. "Sneak off to make out so we don't end up getting poisoned in here?"

"Definitely."

"Brilliant."


	21. Is this where I've laid my affections?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas is an idiot. Newt questions his own sanity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. [Inspiration](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112404898495/kid-thor-the-only-otp-question-the-matters-is)  
> 2\. [Knickers](http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v9/1394001212_1/Fashion-Qulity-Cotton-Underwear-Low-rise-With-Smile-Letters-Women-Briefs-Candy-8-Colors-3-size.jpg)  
> 3\. Here's my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com</)! Come say hi!  
> 4\. I want to be sorry about this but I'm really not.

[insp.](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112404898495/kid-thor-the-only-otp-question-the-matters-is) - I want to say I'm sorry, but I'm really not. [Knickers here](http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v9/1394001212_1/Fashion-Qulity-Cotton-Underwear-Low-rise-With-Smile-Letters-Women-Briefs-Candy-8-Colors-3-size.jpg)  
  
"Tommy, I'm home!" Newt called, kicking off his shoes. It had been a long day at the office, and the fact that Thomas could work from home was equally awesome and annoying. It was annoying because it was so hard to get out of bed, but it was awesome because after Thomas figured out how beat Newt was after a long day of work, he'd actually started taking part in the domestic stuff. The apartment was almost always spotless and food was usually cooking when he got home. Today it didn't smell like food, though, so he took another few steps into the apartment before noticing Ke$ha's Take It Off blasting from the bedroom.

"What the bloody hell?" He muttered under his breath, shrugging off his coat and leaving it lying around because something weird was obviously going on and Thomas still hadn't answered his greeting. "Tommy? You here?"

The brunet's muffled voice sounded from the bedroom, and he was obviously laughing. "Just a second, babe! I'm in the bedroom!"

An eye roll and a snort later Newt made his way towards said room only to walk in on something he'd never thought he'd have to see.

Thomas was... dancing was probably what he was trying to do, but calling it that would be butchering the entire meaning of the word. He was alternating between flailing his arms and legs awkwardly in some strange chicken-dance and twerking viciously as the music changed to Anaconda by Nicki Minaj. On his nipples were a couple of googly eyes and he was wearing what could only be a pair of women's knickers that hugged his ass so tightly Newt wasn't entirely sure whether he should be disturbed or turned on. When his boyfriend did a proud little twirl to show off the smile-print on his butt, this left Newt with only two options: Staying and debating his own sanity forever or leaving. So he left.

"Newt!  _Tell me I'm sexy!_ " Thomas whined, running after him.

"Put some bloody clothes on God damn it!"


	22. I'd sketch out your face till my fingers bleed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas forgets his back, which would be fine if there weren't some pretty incriminating stuff lying around in there. Luckily Newt doesn't mind Thomas' stalker-y tendencies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. THOMAS STARED AT NEWT FOR THREE YEARS ON THOSE SCREENS NONE OF YOU WILL CONVINCE ME THAT HE ISN'T AT LEAST A LITTLE BIT OF A STALKER.  
> 2\. Once again I can conclude that I am not sorry at all.  
> 3\. This was prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) for my 300-500 word snippet prompt challenge.  
> 4\. As you can tell I didn't manage to stay within the limits I set for myself - huge shocker.

Thomas had to admit to himself that he sort of panicked when he lost his backpack. Everything important he owned was in there, and the sketches for his port-folio really needed to be turned in soon. He didn't have time to wait several days for them to return, and the backpack had been a pretty expensive gift from his mother, and what with his laptop and everything still being in it, he realized that he couldn't even be sure he'd really get it back. Which meant that he'd sprinted panically into the auditorium he'd left it in, breathing a heavy sigh of relief when he saw it sitting there. He could almost cry with happiness - until he opened it, that was, and realized that the backpack currently clutched in his hands was not his. It had been too good to be true that his backpack would still safely be sitting here after another class going by, and here he was. He wasn't certain if it was too invasive, but he had to do something, so in the end he started drawing up stuff from it. A mess of notes and books on Global Politics presented him with no help what so ever in terms of figuring out who the new backpack belonged to. There was no phone there, no laptop and no wallet. The person who left this was obviously too smart to leave valuables around, and Thomas cursed himself for knowing that he was not as he kept flicking through the the stuff there without finding anything that could help him.

"Uhm, hi, Thomas, right? I think I have your backpack."

Thomas' face whipped up, because even though they'd never talked there was no way he'd not recognize that voice anywhere. The guy in the door was tall, blonde and his eyes could be described as nothing but piercing. Thomas wanted to die. If he could have picked anyone to not look through his stuff it would be this guy. His name was Newt, and Thomas had the most dorky, ridiculous crush on him. Newt knew Minho, and Thomas' best friend had teased him mercilessly about introducing them several times, but Thomas had avoided it. If Newt turned out not to be gay, Thomas couldn't afford to fall for him even more. It was ridiculous to have this kind of crush on someone he didn't even know, yes, but he knew enough  _about_  Newt that he felt like his crush wasn't totally unwarranted. Newt did charity work, Newt always took care of everyone, and Thomas had even seen him offer up his lunch to Chuck one time because the kid suffered from low blood-sugar. Newt was the type who always smiled at everyone and always had a kind word or a funny comment if someone felt down.

Oh, and he was gorgeous.

Which wouldn't be a problem if Thomas wasn't so fond of sketching portraits when he wasn't doing architecture sketches.

Which again wouldn't be a problem if he hadn't forgotten his fucking backpack. The look in Newt's eyes told him that the other guy had seen the sketches. "So, condoms, lube, architecture, comic books and sketches of me. That's an odd mix," he remarked, his eyebrows slightly raised, and though Thomas only detected a hint of teasing and no scorn his entire face turned beet-red in about 0.5 seconds.

"The condoms aren't mine, I'm holding them for Minho because he's seeing this guy and his mother rummages through his stuff sometimes. If she finds them she'll go nuts," he excused himself, and he realized only after that that maybe he should've started with why he had sketches of Newt lying around. So he did the only thing he could do - he marched straight over to Newt and shoved the blond's backpack into his arms. "Here! I don't... I'm not some creep, I'm not gonna stalk you, I promise, I'm so sorry, I'll go stick my head in the oven," he rambled, moving to make his way past Newt in the door only to be stopped as the blond's arm shot out and blocked his way.

"Shame, I was hoping for a bit of casual stalking on your part. How about you follow me to the nearest coffee shop and do some more sketching while we get to know each other? Minho's being a bloody jerk, I tried to get him to introduce us a million times, but he never managed to make it happen."

Thomas opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before nodding mutely, reaching for his backpack, but not getting to it before Newt had swung it onto his own back. "You look a bit shaken, how about I carry this for you until we get there?"


	23. "Have you lost your mind?!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt sneak a quickie behind the maps room, Newt is worried Alby will find out. Thomas doesn't share his concern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted on tumblr by [miststar](http://miststar.tumblr.com/) as a part of [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet)  
> 2\. I'm sorry about the sad at the end, I couldn't help it.

_"Tommy!"_ Newt’s voice was higher and shriller than Thomas had ever heard it, and he couldn’t help the way his lips quirked upwards at the sides just slightly. “ _Have you lost your damn mind?_  Alby’s gonna  _kill_  us.” Newt’s prediction of what the dark-skinned leader would do to them would probably carry a lot more weight of the blond hadn’t been moaning it into Thomas’ mouth while furiously grinding his hips against Thomas’. Of course the brunet had initiated this, Thomas almost always initiated this when it was at unfitting moments of the day. Which honestly was almost always, because being caught in this hell-hole meant that there was always something to do, and there was close to no privacy.

It wasn’t surprising, not to Newt at least. A meadow full of teenage boys was a hormone-bomb just waiting to blow up, he just hadn’t expected a guy like Thomas to show up. Usually people had to deal with their raging hormones by either hooking up or wanking all by their lonesome, and Newt has just never really found someone who attracted him the way Thomas did. Of course, Minho and Alby were very attractive from a more objective point of view, but 1) Alby was his best friend. 2) Minho was just way too in love with himself for Newt to find him attractive in any other way than “Fuck you but also fuck me.” and that just didn’t cut it for him. He needed something more, and Thomas was definitely, definitely more. He was a mouthful in more than one way ( _pun bloody well intended, thank you very much_ ), and Newt would never admit it, but he sort of liked the mischievousness that would overtake Thomas sometimes, and he loved the way those amber eyes would glint with amusement when he had Newt pinned like this, both their bodies warm and slick with sweat and Newt panting against him.

"Alby won’t find out unless you tell him," his brunet pointed out, laughing softly into the soft skin on Newt’s neck before licking at salty skin, a soft, appreciative hum escaping his lips at the taste of his angelic boyfriend. "And you won’t tell him, you’re not dumb enough to do that," he added, pressing his thigh against Newt insistently, "Are you?"

It took a couple of seconds of panting for Newt to find his voice again, and his fingers clutched at Thomas’ shirt, desperate, but careful not to tear, as that would be both revealing and unpractical seeing as their choosing of clothes was limited to say the least. “N-No,” he stuttered, unable to stop his voice from cracking. He buried his face in a warm, sweet-smelling shoulder before shuddering through his orgasm with a muffled moan. The stutter of Thomas’ hips and the breathy laughter leaving his boyfriend told him that Thomas had followed him right over the edge, and Newt let his head thump back against the outer wall of the map-room. “You’ll be the end of me.”

Thomas chuckled softly, stealing a kiss before answering. “I sure hope not.”


	24. "Wanna bet?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt and Thomas makes a bet that Thomas can go for a week without sex. Newt doesn't intend to make it easy for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge!

A slow smirk spread on Newt’s face. “You’re bloody damn right I wanna bet,” he laughed, taking a long second to look at his boyfriend. He knew his eyes betrayed the fact that he’d already decided to make this hard for Thomas. Pun intended. “You are the horniest bloke I know, Tommy, you won’t even last a _day_.”

___  
  
Day 2:  
Making a sex-bet with Newt had been a bad idea. Thomas could feel himself slipping, which was to be expected, but he’d counted on his stubbornness to carry him a lot further. That would have been easy if his boyfriend wasn’t such a bloody tease and if he himself had been more adamant about the no-touching rule instead of bending to Newt’s puppy eyes so easily. Having Newt waltz around in only his boxers and kissing him deeply all the time made things  _hard_. In multiple ways. Thomas kept calm, though. And cursed the fact that Newt had been smart enough to be very insistent on the no-jerking-off rule. Thomas really had to learn to think things through, he recognized that. Of course, his thoughts were quickly drawn from his many faults as Newt brushed up against him. “I missed you all day, Tommy,” the other man whispered, his voice way more sultry than was in any way fair. Thomas had had problems just leaving their apartment this morning because Newt had been stretching his long limbs on the bed, and they’d only just made the bet yesterday. It was hell. He shrugged off his jacket, fighting to be calm.

"I missed you too," he smiled, because he did. Newt was infuriatingly attractive when he was like this, and Thomas was determined to win this bet, but there was nothing that could make him deny how much he’d missed having Newt in his arms, so the jacket ended up on the floor in a messy bundle as he put his arms about the person who had come to mean the world to him and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, "But it’s not gonna be that easy for you."

Newt’s soft, annoyed whine followed him to the kitchen, and Thomas chuckled happily in the back of his throat, reaching into a cupboard to get some of the powdered cocoa for both of them to enjoy. It was movienight, and it was going to be glorious. “I almost lasted for two days already, I’m gonna win, babe. There’s only five days left, I can totally do this, you should have never made that bet,” he smirked, grabbing the kettle and pouring water into the cups that he’d prepared while talking. He almost managed to spill it on himself when long, pale arms closed around him from behind and a very warm body pressed against his. He could feel Newt’s chest press against his and a soft kiss fluttered against the back of his neck. He swallowed a lump and continued pouring. Bragging had been a horrible idea, but then again, that was what had gotten him into this whole mess from the beginning. “Maybe get in the livingroom and make yourself comfortable?” Thomas suggested, nervously stirring the contains of the cups. He desperately needed a little break from Newt, because he’d been thinking of him all day, seeing as the boyfriend had texted him all sorts of debauched things. It was horrible, really, that someone could look so angelic and be so devilish on the inside. Newt, against Thomas’ expectations, just laughed and disappeared. Equal amounts of disappointment and relief flooded through Thomas as he poured plenty of mini marshmallows into the cups and took one into each hand after placing the bag of marshmallows in between his teeth. If he knew his boyfriend at all Newt would want more, having a sweet tooth like no one else Thomas had ever known.

When he entered the living-room he had to swallow a lump once again. Not because Newt did something in particular, just because the way his hair was always slightly ruffled and fluffy was adorable. Thomas often wondered how he’d gotten this lucky, and having to keeps his hands off Newt’s long legs and beautiful cheekbones. He hated this bet more and more for every second, but instead of pondering on his unlucky situation he just moved to sit next to Newt who promptly put his cup down and started eating marshmallows straight from the bag in the most sensual way possible, and Thomas couldn’t help the way his gaze drifted to Newt’s lips. “You’re doing that on purpose,” he stated, completely unnecessary seeing as that was obvious to everyone.

"Maybe I am, maybe I’m not," Newt laughed, apparently deciding to show mercy, seeing as he put down the marshmallow bag and turn on the TV. "So, I decided we should watch Game of Thrones."

” _Re-_ watch, technically that’s not a movie, and you only picked that because there’s a lot of sex in it and you think it’ll make me horny,” Thomas pouted, deliberately not mentioning the fact that he was already horny.

All he got in reply was an innocent smile and Newt shuffling over to sit in his lap before pressing play. The little shit knew that Thomas couldn’t say no to him, and so it began.

Needless to say, Thomas didn’t make it past day two.


	25. "Come over here and make me."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt wants Thomas to put on his shoes right now so they aren't late to meet his parents. Thomas hides his insecurities behind cheeky flirting. His dear boyfriend isn't pleased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by the lovely [miststar](http://miststar.tumblr.com/) thank you for keeping me on my toes!  
> 2\. This might turn into a fic one day because I _really_ like this AU. God damn it, Jack, not again.

The shoe flying through the apartment at that comment told Thomas that that had been the wrong answer. He should definitely have held his tongue this time. In retrospect, Newt had been kind of grumpy all day, and meeting his boyfriend’s parents was a big deal, so maybe saying that exactly today was a bad idea. It was easy to be clever in retrospect and Thomas was never one to think before he spoke, which meant that now he had to fix it, and being Thomas of course he had a great idea for this. That idea involved picking up his shoes and making his way over to a very pissed of Englishman, dropping the shoe and kissing his cheek. “I’m sorry,” when Newt just turned his face in the other direction Thomas bend down to put on the shoes as his boyfriend had asked him while inwardly cursing his big mouth, “They’re just so… fancy,” he muttered, wrinkling his nose before straightening up, “And I guess I’m a little nervous about meeting your parents. What if they don’t approve?”

The question was followed by a soft sigh from Newt that told Thomas that maybe it was okay to let his arms sneak around the slim waist of his beautiful boyfriend. “If they don’t, I’ll bloody well make them approve. Don’t think that makes me forget that I’m annoyed with you.”

"Far be it from me to make such assumptions. I was just trying to be flirty because you look so good when you put on a suit. I, on the other hand, look like someone who pretends I’m something I’m not, which, to be fair, I am." Thomas pointed out, laughing softly as he peppered kisses up the pale column of Newt’s throat.

It was true. Thomas, a lowly mechanic trying to make enough money to put himself through engineering school, had been a whole new level of lucky to land the eldest child of the Isaacs family. Newt had grown up with parents that were loving, but absent most of the time, in riches and wealth, but with parents who could hardly ever spare him a minute. Thomas had grown up with a single mother who spent every minute trying to make money for them to get by while still giving Thomas all the love and care he could possibly ask for. And here they were, eight months after they had accidentally crossed paths, and Newt had still not realized that he could do way better. Thomas was worried that tonight may be the night, that seeing Thomas with his parents might make him see that. He clothed those insecurities in cheeky flirting, and thus he’d managed to piss Newt off. That only went to prove that he was a major idiot, but those were thoughts for another time, because Newt had given in and tilted his head down to nose at Thomas’ jaw, forcing him to raise his head and pressed their lips together insistently.

"You look amazing, don’t be a jerk. You’re a hard worker, when you get your engineering-degree things will take off for you, I promise that. You’re brilliant, my parents will recognize that," and with that Thomas knew that he’d been forgiven. "And, even if they wouldn’t, they’d realize that you love me and I love you, and that’s more than enough. You might have heard a lot of shit about them, but they’re my parents and they want the best for me."

 _And you’re so certain that’s me._  Thomas smiled through his doubts and shook his head softly. “You have so much faith in me, sometimes it terrifies me to be honest,” he laughed, deciding that they’d had enough of the heavy talk for now, “You sure you don’t want to make sure I tied my shoes right? I mean, once you’re down there you might find-oomfph!” he laughed through the shove Newt gave him straight to the stomach and grabbed for his boyfriend, pulling them close together and putting both hands on the blond’s cheeks. “Tell me you’ll love me even if I make an ass of myself.”

Newt rolled his eyes. “You won’t make an arse of yourself, and even if you do I’ll love you forever.”

Somehow that single sentence made everything alright again.


	26. "If you keep looking at me like that we won't make it to a bed."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas doesn't know what it is, but he's doing _something_ completely right on the day where he meets Newt's parents for the first time, because Newt is giving him _the look_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. Sequel to "Come over here and make me." (previous chapter).  
> 3\. Okay so I really really like this AU.

Thomas really hadn’t expected the night to go this well. He’d expected this night to be a downright disaster, because Newt’s family was fancy and rich and he was… well, he was the son of a poor single mother who’d worked her ass off for him to even be able to go to school. Newt had received the cream de la crop of educations, and he was a lowly mechanic. He’d never expected that Newt’s stiff-upper-lip tea-drinking father loved cars (Newt could have told him that, but of course the bastard had held onto that information - Thomas had forgiven him as soon as he saw the way Newt’s eyes lit up with happiness when Thomas and his father dived into a long, passionate conversation about motors and the pros and cons of trading size for speed when it came to fancy-ass-cars.). He’d never expected to be this interested in any conversation with a rich English upperclass-man, but here he was, making conversation and it was only interrupted when Newt’s mother cleared her throat rather loudly. Thomas got the sense that she’d tried to do it discretely a couple of times if the reproachful glance she was sending her husband was anything to go by. He plastered a more neutral smile on his face and straightened up in his chair (taking his arms down from the excited gestures he’d been doing while conspiratorially plotting with Newt’s father to go get the man a proper car next week). “I’m sorry Mrs. Isaacs, what were you saying?” He asked, trying to look like the perfect son-in-law.

"I was about to propose a toast to you and Newton," she smiled, and Thomas felt warm inside from the kind glance she was sending him.

When Newt muttered “Newt, mother, I prefer Newt,” from next to him Thomas just smiled and reached over to take Newt’s hand. It felt like his chest was about to implode from happiness. He’d never expected things to be this great, and now they were proposing a toast? When he moved his glance his mouth went slightly dry. Newt was looking at him with that  _glint_  in his eyes.

There was something hungry about it, and Thomas felt his cheeks heat up just a little bit. It wasn’t like him at all, really. That look always got him fired up, but it never really embarrassed him, except of course they’d never been sitting with Newt’s parents before and here he was, squirming just a bit in his chair because he knew what that look meant. “Cheers,” he echoed with the others, taking a long sip of his glass.

"Oh, Carl, hi dear!" Newt’s mother called, excusing herself and standing up quickly to greet some acquaintance or another somewhere across the room. Newt’s father seemed to notice the tension, so he nodded towards the restrooms. "You lads order another bottle of wine, I’ll go tend to some private matters," he stated, clapping Thomas on the shoulder and sending Newt a big smile before making himself scarce. 

"Can’t wait to take you to bed tonight," Newt muttered as soon as his father was out of range. Thomas knew him well enough to know that he’d done the 5 second rule and counted inside his head.

His mouth went even drier, though, here in a crowded restaurant, one of the finest in London, and he leaned in closer just to create the tiniest semblance of privacy. “If you keep looking at me like that we won’t make it into a bed,” he promised, squeezing Newt’s hand softly, “What got you going?”

Newt merely rolled his eyes. “Just you. My parents adore you. I’m just happy.”

Thomas wasn’t sure if he managed to hide the way his smile wanted to betray the emotions that welled up in his chest, but he tried his very best. “I’m happy too. Now stop looking at me like that, or I’m gonna come in my pants right here.”

"I don’t know, maybe you’re a bit feverish, honey," Newt stated innocently, and Thomas couldn’t help the goofy smile spreading on his face."

"I’ll have to find out when I’m meeting up with your father next week first, then we can fake serious illness."

"Deal."


	27. "Hey, have you seen the..? Oh."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas can't find his shirt for work. Newt knows where it is, and fortunately Thomas is in no rush to get to work, because Newt has plans for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by the ever-lovely and always inspiring [newmas](http://newmas.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge on my tumblr. Thank you for always encouraging my writing, love!  
> 2\. Hope you don't mind that I continue this verse because I can't seem to stop myself.  
> 3\. Prequel or sequel to the two former chapters, all up to you, I don't care about the time-line because I'm trash.

Thomas wasn’t in a rush per say, but he was uncertain he had anymore clean uniforms for his job at the car shop, and while his boss didn’t care much about dressing for work, Thomas didn’t want to wreck any of his good stuff with motor-oil and shit like that, so for the past ten minutes he’d been rummaging through the heaps of clothes that had managed to end up absolutely everywhere in their bedroom. “Babe! I need help, I can’t find my T-shirt!”

"What?" Newt’s steps sounded softly against the thick carpet that covered their bedroom floor as he moved into the room.

"Hey, have you seen the..? Oh." Thomas trailed off as he turned around to find his boyfriend dressed in the exact shirt he’d been looking for. And nothing else, mind you. "Oh there it is," he mumbled, knowing that his voice had grown weak. Of course Newt looked incredible in his shirt. It was no surprise at all, seeing as Newt looked incredible in everything. And nothing. Mostly nothing, his mind helpfully supplied.

The small, crooked smile Newt sent him made his heart jump. “Here it is indeed. Why don’t you come over and get it?” That made something else entirely jump, and Thomas shuffled to his feet, looking at his watch quickly. One hour to work. He could totally make that work, so he rushed over to his boyfriend, tangling his fingers in blond locks that curled ever so slightly at the nape of the blond’s neck, and he did what he did best. He kissed Newt as hard as he possibly could, pressing their bodies together so they aligned perfectly and moaning into his boyfriend’s mouth. “Good morning to you too,” Newt laughed in between kisses, the bittersweet taste of his morning coffee and the blueberry muffins Frypan had dropped off yesterday still lingering on Thomas’ tongue.

"Fuck yeah it is," he muttered, diving in for another kiss while his fingers occupied themselves in ridding Newt of his shirt before they got it dirty. Wouldn’t take them long if their usual pace was anything to go by, so Thomas whimpered his dissatisfaction out when Newt did nothing to help him get the damn thing off his slim frame.

He shook his head, laughing when Thomas pulled back his face and pouted, trying to convey without having to actually catch his breath how unhappy he was with Newt’s decision to be a tease at this exact moment. “Don’t be cross. I want to suck your cock… while I’m wearing it. That way you can think of me even when you’re at work.”

Thomas couldn’t ignore the way his dick jumped to attention at the thought, and Newt obviously couldn’t either, because his hand was currently pressing against the straining erection that was poking up over the waistband of Thomas’ boxers. “That sounds horribly unsafe, I handle a lot of heavy machinery and-“

"You’re rambling, shut up and let me handle the heavy machinery for now," Newt laughed, and Thomas would have called him out on the horrible joke if Newt hadn’t sunken to his knees right then and there, and Thomas really couldn’t argue with that.


	28. "I almost lost you."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas is stupid enough to go back in the maze right after the Changing. Newt is so close to losing him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. Oh look, sadness, yay.

Thomas hadn’t expected the Changing to be pleasant. He wasn’t an idiot, although getting himself stung could definitely be used to argue otherwise. He’d powered through, though, because they needed to get back out running, and no protest of Minho’s, Chuck’s or even Newt’s could keep him from trying to figure that maze out. So he’d gone running, which had obviously been a horrible idea, because about 300 meters before he was back in the relative safety of the maze he found himself being chased by a Griever.

He’d stupidly never expected one of them to show up today of all days, because usually they only came out at night and he’d just never thought he’d be so unfortunate. Once again, stupid, seeing as he was caught in this hell-hole with a bunch of other boys just as terrified as he was and no way out in sight. The fear was making his heart pound so hard a small, irrational part of him was sort of afraid that his heart would jump out of his chest. The rest of him was focused on one thing only. Reaching that opening, because the doors had started closing, and he could hear the Griever noises that haunted his nightmares come closer and closer. The adrenaline surged through his veins, and he was fortunate his body knew the way because he hadn’t even realized that he’d squeezed his eyes shut before he hard the loud slam behind him and the vacuum of the doors tear at his clothes for a few seconds before everything fell silent. Then he collapsed on the ground, face first without even looking around, and before he knew it a body curled up next to his.

Without looking he knew that the sound of other Gladers’ footsteps meant that their friends were moving away to give them space while Newt clung to him for dear life. “I’m okay,” was all he could muster, unable to even turn his face from pure exhaustion.

"Why the bloody hell did you insist on going out there, huh? Why? Do you want to die? Do you want to leave me alone?!" If he hadn’t already been completely broken down, that did it, because he felt his throat clench and he mustered his last bit of strength to turn his head and look at Newt. Tears had streaked the dirty cheeks, and Thomas wanted to raise his arm and put it around his boyfriend, but couldn’t manage the strength to do it.

"No. Never. I’m sorry, just give me a minute."

The fresh wave of tears over Newt’s cheeks surprised Thomas enough for him to move his arm even though he felt like it might be his last movement ever, and he managed to drape it over the blond who was trembling with his own sobs. “Don’t you ever do that again, Tommy, don’t you bloody dare. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”

"You’re not gonna be without me," he tried, but his own words sounded hollow with how close he’d just come.

"Don’t say that. You don’t know that. Promise you won’t do something like that again. I almost lost you. I can’t believe I almost lost you."

Thomas cleared his throat, surprised that he had to fight so hard to keep back his own tears. “I’m here, Newt. I promise, I’m here, I’ll always come back.”


	29. "It could be worse."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt have managed to get themselves caught in the middle of a huge-ass lake somewhere and somehow Thomas managed to lose the oars and drown his phone. There's nothing to do but to try to cheer Newt up by declaring his eternal love to him, so that's what Thomas does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by ma boo [Tilly](http://firstyear-greenie.tumblr.com) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on my tumblr.  
> 2\. This was fun and cute thanks for prompting me, bby!

” _Tell me. Please,_  Tommy,  _do_  tell me how this could be bloody worse.” Newt snarled, glaring at his friend angrily before trying to scoop water backwards with his hands in a desperate attempt to get ahold of their oars before they floated too far away.

Thomas’ muttered complaints were barely audible enough for Newt to hear, and thankfully so subdued that he could ignore them in favor of working, because the chances of him ripping off Thomas’ arms and using them for oars were terrifyingly big right now. “Well you don’t have to be so dramatic about it, I mean, it wasn’t on purpose, I just wanted to take a selfie.”

The word selfie did it. “A selfie, with your phone who is now  _drowned_  while my own is out of battery, as we are  _floating out in God’s good NOWHERE WITHOUT OARS!_ " Newt roared, only feeling a little bad when Thomas hunched his shoulders and looked appropriately miserable and ashamed of his misdeeds. They were screwed and they both knew it.

"At least we have the protein bars Minho packed us," Thomas suggested softly, his voice so insecure that Newt took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down a bit.

"The smug sod probably knew things would end up like this, I hate him. I’m gonna murder him when we get home. Don’t ever tell him, I will bloody cut you, Tommy."

Thomas’ offended expression only earned him a stern glance, which was fair if you thought about it, because the idiot had gotten them in this situation after all. He wisely held his tongue and started helping Newt’s hopeless chasing after their oars. It took them roughly ten minutes to realize that it was hopeless, and Newt stared angrily at the water, which was obviously a positive twist, because Thomas had been starting to worry that Newt’s death glare might actually burn straight through him. “I’m sorry,” he muttered again, visibly deflating. This was supposed to be a nice thing for him and Newt to do, a way of testing the waters, “I just wanted the two of us to have a nice trip without all of the others. I wanted to hang out with you alone for once, and I screwed it up, I’m sorry, okay?”

Newt’s sigh and the way his shoulders lowered slightly told Thomas that he was on his way to forgiveness, which was definitely a good sign. “Why did it have to be here, Tommy?”

Thomas bit his lower lip, hesitating, because at the same time this was the worst and the best time ever to get this off his chest. He took a deep breath and pushed on, “I wanted to be alone with you and make sure none of the others would disturb us, back at the dorm they’re always a second from barging in,” and he wanted to continue, he really did, but Newt looked so confused, and his insides felt as though they were turning to ice. Newt couldn’t possibly be feeling the same things for him if he hadn’t put two and two together, but Thomas was nothing if not brave, so he mustered his last ounce of courage and surged forward, almost tilting the boat over before even getting there, and brushed his lips against Newt’s as softly as he possibly could.

His eyes were squeezed shut, and there was no response, and he knew with an ice cold certainty, that this was it. He’d screwed everything up and it would all be painful and awkward from here. “You know, Tommy,” he pulled back a bit, readying himself for the kind rejection that he knew Newt would at least grant him, “If you wanted me to yourself, you didn’t have to get us caught in the middle of a bloody lake, you could’ve just told me that you had a bloody crush on me,” and there it was, that smile, and Thomas’ chest clenched and he could feel the blood rush to his cheeks and color him beet-red, and he knew the smile on his face was the goofiest fucking thing, but he couldn’t keep it off his face, “Now, if you’d sit bloody still, I’ll kiss you this time, so we don’t end up in the water and we can think about how to make our way back so we can go on our first date after,” and with that the deal was sealed and two frantic, hungry sets of lips  _finally_  met.


	30. "It could be worse." pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a nice round of heated making out Thomas and Newt realize that somehow they have to get those oars somehow. If that means Thomas stripping down to almost nothing, that's definitely not the worst thing that happened to Newt today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I didn't mean to do this but then I needed to.  
> 2\. Prompts will continue shortly, I'm almost done with the next one but this one needs to get out of my system first. Sequel to the previous chapter.

Newt's lips were scorching on his, and Thomas felt a rush of adrenaline in his body, because he would have never thought he'd be this lucky, but here he was, fitted snugly into Newt's lap and only having to limit himself and his need to crawl all over him because they didn't want the boat to tip over. Hot fingers dug into his hips under the hem of his tank-top, and a soft bite at his lower lip tore a moan from the back of his throat and made his hips stutter against Newt's. "Holy shit," he breathed, resting his forehead against Newt's, because this was very quickly getting out of hand and it wasn't like he minded but he needed a little breather because the urge to rip at Newt's clothes and just abandon all good sense was growing within him, and he didn't want to risk making Newt mad again by tipping them over. So instead he got ahold of himself (who was he kidding, he didn't at all, he just tried to shove his arousal back just a little bit) and shuffled around as calmly as he could. "We should," he started, interrupted by a moan he had absolutely no control over, because Newt was doing things to the hollow of his neck that couldn't honestly be legal, and he once again had to brace himself on Newt's chest and stop himself from rutting against the blond.

The soft smirk that met him made his ears turn bright red, and Thomas took a deep breath, trying yet again to force himself to calm down. "We should what, Tommy?" and if the way Newt's lips brushed against the sensitive skin on the side of his neck wasn't about to kill him, that tone definitely was.

"We should try to find the _oars!_ "

The last part of his sentence was punctuated by a whimper, his voice rising an octave higher than his dignity honestly wanted it to, as Newt sucked a bruise into the base of his neck.

"You're right," the blond sighed, his tone slightly regretful, but he let Thomas shuffle out of his lap, and the brunet spent the precious seconds he was granted to catch his breath and straighten out his clothes. And, you know, adjust the beginning erection in his pants before it got completely out of hand. "But how?" Newt asked, eyes darting only fleetingly to said bulge.

Thomas pondered this question for a bit. He was pretty sure he'd had an idea a couple of minutes ago, but Newt had effectively eradicated even the faintest memory of what this brilliant idea had been. "Uhm, I mean, I could jump in after it?" He suggested, feeling a smirk of his own form when Newt's eyes darkened ever so slightly. It was warm enough that his clothes would dry pretty quickly, so he just wiggled out of his pants after having gotten rid of his shoes and socks, dropped them to the bottom of the boat and carefully stood up, winking at Newt before diving in and swimming after the oars which had fortunately only made it about 500 meters away from them.

It didn't take him horribly long to bring them back and shove them into the boat. His hair was plastered to his forehead and he proceeded to tread water for a while, grinning up at Newt, "Told you I'd get them."

A smug smile met him and Newt shrugged, "Got yourself wet in the process, Tommy, I don't see that as much of a win," he laughed, picking the oars up from the bottom of the boat and resting them on the seats instead to make sure they didn't drip all over his phone that he had, wisely, placed there to spare it from a fate similar to that of Thomas' phone.

That proved to be a very,  _very_ good decision, because seconds later Thomas decided to punish his cheekiness by giving the boat a big shove that sent the balancing Newt overboard into the water. "Tommy! You little shit!"

"You loooooove me," Thomas sang triumphantly, almost forgetting to tread water as Newt swam over and shoved at him. 

"Shut up," the blond laughed, and Thomas only had a couple of seconds to appreciate the way golden locks turned dark against his forehead before Newt  _made him_ with an insistent kiss, only pulled off because the Englishman had a solid grip on the edge of the boat with that hand that was not tangled in the hair at the nape of Thomas' neck.


	31. "Wait a minute. Are you jealous?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt's best friend and ex-boyfriend Alby returns from having gone traveling with Doctors Without Borders. Thomas does not like this wonder of a man at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. I FUCKING LOVE JEALOUSY PROMPTS JUST MY PRECIOUS LIL' TOMMY SO ANGRY CHILDISH OMFG LOOK AT HIM

It wasn’t that Thomas wasn’t  _happy_  for Newt. His best friend (cough cough and ex boyfriend!!!) Alby had come home from his travels, and Thomas should really have the emotional capacity to be happy for his boyfriend. The thing was, though, that Thomas was a giant child and he was  _definitely_  not happy with the way Newt had been talking to Alby all night. If he was being fair, he knew that the very reasonable explanation for this (an explanation that he also knew should not even be needed if he’d been a rational fucking person) was that Newt hadn’t seen Alby for the three years he’d been gone. It also didn’t help that Alby had a degree in medicine and had been traveling for Doctors without Borders and had only left Newt to save starving children dying of multiple horrible diseases.

The worst part was that Thomas admired the guy, he did. How could he not? He’d  _saved hundreds and hundreds of children from dying._ But Thomas also hated him. He found himself glancing at the dark-skinned man sourly and hating the way that wide smile was always turned against Newt, always showing off those perfect, white teeth and he wanted to punch him in the fucking face except for being smarter than Thomas, who was still struggling through his engineering degree, Alby was also bigger, had broader shoulders and biceps that only Minho could best. Thomas really,  _really_  hated him.

"You’re doing that face," Minho remarked from next to him, and Thomas took a deep sip of his beer.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about, my face always looks like this, this is the face I was born with,  _shut up_ , Minho,” he didn’t even have to look at his friend to know that Minho was smirking and he hated Minho a little bit too. And Frypan, who was cracking jokes that made both Alby and Newt laugh, and Chuck who seemed fascinated and a little intimidated by Alby, and Teresa who’d already decided that she liked him, and he even hated Newt a little bit for not having spared him a glance all night (that wasn’t true, he knew that, but it was true inside his head and he couldn’t shove that thought away.)

A small chuckle was all he got as an answer in the beginning, because Minho disappeared and reappeared a few seconds later with a couple of beers. “No it doesn’t. You’re doing your bitchface. It’s not attractive,  _Tommy_ ,”

Thomas’ gaze whipped towards Minho, staring him down with fire in his eyes. “Don’t use that name.”

"Oh come on, Thomas, we all know it has something to do with him, it’s obviously. You’ve been glaring daggers at Alby since he came in the door, I’m surprised he hasn’t dropped dead yet. And that Newt hasn’t noticed. Oh, speaking of, here he comes," Minho snickered happily to himself, and Thomas decided to start plotting his friend’s slow, painful death while he mentally steeled himself for what was to come.

"Tommy, I just realized you haven’t even met my best friend Alby," Newt’s happy voice said, and Thomas looked up, forcing a smile on his face as he reached out his hand to squeeze Alby’s, and if he squeezed just a little harder than he had to it was more out of his own insecurities than it was of mean spirit.

"I’m Thomas," he stated, trying not to sound clipped but failing miserably, and he despised himself for letting his jealousy get the better of him.

The dark-skinned man in front of him nodded and flashed him another one of those wide, white smiles. “Newt has hardly spoken of anything but you all night. I’m glad to finally meet you, you should have come over,”

"I wasn’t really feeling it. Excuse me." Thomas muttered, making his way past the other two only to catch a glimpse of a very confused Alby and a worried Newt.

The gazes of their friends felt like they were burning themselves into his back as he exited the room, Minho rolling his eyes with his arm slung around Teresa’s shoulders and Chuck worrying his bottom-lip. If anything it made Thomas feel even more childish and ridiculous - not welcome feelings when he was already borderline angry and very, deeply jealous.

The warm hand on his shoulder that could only belong to Newt slowed his advance just a bit, “Tommy, are you okay?”

The worry in Newt’s voice almost broke something in him, and he turned around slowly. He was being childish and he knew it, but here Newt was, worrying about him like the amazing boyfriend he was, and Thomas rubbed his forehead. “Look, I’m fine, it’s just… you’ve barely looked at me all night and you have this amazing ex-boyfriend who saved small children in Africa.  _I’ve never saved any children!_ ”

Oops. There it was. It slipped, and Newt’s expression transformed from worried to one of pure wonder to childish glee, “Wait a minute. Are you  _jealous_? Of Alby? Tommy  _please_!”

Embarrassment seeped through his body and Thomas had to take a few deep breaths to keep his temper in check, because the jealousy churning in his stomach hadn’t completely left him, and here Newt was, laughing at his emotions. “Of course I’m jealous! He’s older, he’s more fit than me, he’s a fucking doctor, did I mention he saves small children? From death!”

"And he left me to pursue his dreams without even talking to me about it, Tommy. He let go of my heart, and I’m not about to ever hand it back to him. I don’t want to, and I don’t feel the bloody urge to. I forgave him for leaving because he’s my best friend, but I could never love him the same way again. Not the way I love you. I could never love anyone the way I love you."


	32. "I think I'm in love with you and I'm terrified."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas has had a lot of time to think on his emotions during The Scorch Trials, and he's figured out that neither Brenda nor Teresa will make him happy. There's someone who will, though, now he just needs to tell that certain blond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. thE ANGST i love the angst.  
> 3\. This one contains TST spoilers, so if you haven't read it don't read this m'kay.

After everything they’d been through, you’d think Thomas had finally come to terms with the fact that in a world like the one they lived in, there was no time to be spared for love.

Thomas wasn’t really that clever, not that way anyway, because after everything with Teresa and Brenda had went down and they’d finally made it out of that godforsaken Crank-infested city here he was, safe after what seemed to be yet another fight against something so terrifying it was barely comprehendible, and all he wanted to do was talk to Newt. He’d said what he needed to say to Teresa, Brenda was God only knew where, and Minho was flirting to some girl who was close to passing out. If that was credited to Minho’s poor flirting or the exhausting two weeks they’d all just had, Thomas didn’t know, and he wasn’t about to explore into that further, because he spotted a familiar mop of blond hair a little away, and he needed to get ahold of Newt before he fell asleep.

"Newt?" He asked, after he’d made his way over there, softly grabbing his friend’s shoulder, and nodded towards a small corner that seemed a bit more secluded than the other spaces in the huge, noisy aircraft. "Can we talk?"

Newt nodded tiredly. Thomas felt a small sting of guilt, because 1) It was his fault Newt was even here in the first place, and Thomas had a hard time letting go of that feeling even if the blond had told him to a million times, 2) Newt looked about ready to pass out, and he was still making time to talk to Thomas. Thomas just really hoped Newt responded the way he wanted him to, because things had never been so clear for him before, and he sent up a small prayer to whatever useless deity that had definitely  _not_  held a hand over them, that Newt wouldn’t freak out.

"So, I’ve thought about some things," he started, chewing nervously on his bottom lip when they finally made their way over. They were both exhausted, and every step seemed like an almost impossible effort. He held out a hand to help Newt sit down, crosslegged, because he knew that the limp had been getting worse throughout these new trials.

Newt just nodded and looked at him expectantly, “Go on, Tommy, I’m about ready to collapse,” he said, but flashed Thomas a small smile to show that he wasn’t upset.

One of the many things that had been flying around in Thomas’ head the past two weeks (and maybe even before that, but back in the Maze he’d obviously been too blind to understand what kind of feelings that smile inspired in him), was Newt’s smile. The way it seemed to have a calming effect on him, but also the way Newt always seemed to be able to spare one of those glorious smiles for anyone who needed it. He wanted to believe that they were safe now, he really did, but he had a hard time believing it - which was why it had come to this. He had to say it now before he lost his courage, or even worse, his chance to say it. “So, you know there’s been a lot of stuff with me and Teresa and Brenda, right?”

Newt nodded again, more cautious this time, and the way his expression turned slightly sour inspired just a tiny, childish glimmer of hope in Thomas. “I think that’s bloody well clear to everyone, shank. Spit it out.”

"I figured some stuff out. I’m not interested in either of them."

The change in Newt’s posture was so small Thomas almost thought he’d imagined it, but it seemed like he straightened up just a little bit. “Maybe you should go tell them that, then. I don’t really have any advice for you on that, Tommy, I’ve never had to deal with girls.”

Thomas quickly shook his head, his hand shooting out to grasp Newt’s wrist as the other boy moved to stand up, “No no, it’s not that. Please don’t leave, I wasn’t asking advice, I was just-“

Something in Newt seemed to snap, because he shook his head irritably and snorted, “Look, I’m tired of listening to your girldrama, Tommy, it’s fine, just don’t make any trouble and everything will be-“

"I think I’m in love with you and I’m terrified."

Every word that Newt seemed to be ready to shoot at him seemed to die on his lips, because the blond opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before slowly sitting back down. “I’m listening.”

"I… I know we don’t have the time for stuff like that, and you’re probably not even interested, but I think the reason I’ve been so busy with the girls is that I didn’t want to see it and I was just scared of how everyone would react. But it’s you or no one, I’m sure of that now. And I don’t know what’s going to happen now, or if they’re even telling the truth about us get-"

He never got any further, though, because seconds later Newt had moved and now hot, chapped lips were pressing against his, and all Thomas could muster was a soft, surprised sound, followed by a wave of excited hoots from Minho and Frypan who had only seconds ago had looked like someone who was very much asleep.

” _Finally_.”

"Shut the bloody hell up, Minho."


	33. "You fainted… straight into my arms. You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas really wants to impress the talent scouts by beating his own time. He may have over-exhausted himself a bit. He's lucky that the new assistant coach is there to catch him when he drops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [sora-yaoi](http://sora-yaoi.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on my tumblr!  
> 2\. I have an extreme weakness for dom!Newt that I don’t usually let out, but here he is.  
> 3\. I “researched” (poor me, the strain of having to watch interviews to figure out how to describe it) Thomas Sangster’s voice and it’s surprisingly difficult for me to explain. I’d like to state right here that I considered writing baby-nerdlord, but thought it wouldn’t flow well. Lil’ bit of Jack writing-trivia for ya there.  
> 4\. Thank you so much to [fan-girl-it-up](http://fan-girl-it-up.tumblr.com) for getting me past this issue.  
> 5\. I really fucking like this AU God damn it not again.

If he just pushed himself for a minute longer. Just another minute, he would’ve beaten his record if he just speeded up a little bit, and Thomas was nothing if not stubborn, so he sped up, bending his head ever so slightly against the wind and pushed on, his legs pumping harder and harder and the adrenaline shooting through his veins. He’d been training so hard lately, and he knew he was pushing it right now, but he wanted to do this, he  _needed_  to do this to prove to himself that he could get even better, and he knew there might be scouts here. He desperately needed that scholarship, and he could have spend ages and ages thinking of that, but instead he shoved it out of his head and poured every last bit of his energy into his legs and took off in one last sprint that brought him over the finish-line and at the second he slowed down and turned to take a small jog away from the lane to slow down his sight darkened and everything faded to black.  
___________________________

"What happened?"

His head was pounding, and Thomas was pretty certain he hadn’t been lying on grass last time he remembered. Nope, he’d definitely been jogging and he’d just swerved to make sure he didn’t hit this tall, gorgeous blond dude, and then bam. Blackness.  _Shit_. He decided right then to never open his eyes, because he was pretty sure what (flawless) face he’d see when he opened them.

"You fainted… straight into my arms. You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes."

And his voice was amazing too, of course. It was light and soft, as though he was still not entirely sure Thomas hadn’t gotten hurt, but there was a laughter in it that finally prompted Thomas to open his eyes. He was utterly and completely screwed.

This guy was even more beautiful up close with his golden locks and those warm eyes that seemed just on the brink of laughter. His jawline was square and his cheekbones made Thomas’ fingers itch to skirt over them, grazing the tan skin. His mouth felt dry, and he shouldn’t, but his gaze ran down the guy’s face to a strong neck and down to his chest… where an assistant coach badge) was pinned.

Screwed didn’t even begin to describe his situation right now.

"I," he croaked, obviously thirsty after his run, seeing as he’d never gotten the chance to get a post-run glass of water afterwards, and before he knew it he was lowered to the ground completely (tall-handsome-stranger had been holding him just a little bit above in his extremely comfortable and sort of muscular arms) and moved away for a couple of seconds (probably like maybe the worst seconds in Thomas’ life he was sure of it because  _what if he doesn’t return_  but also  _what if he returns?!_ ) and came back with a juice box with a straw sticking up.

"You shouldn’t push yourself  _that_  hard. You had good time, no reason to collapse like that,” the blond stated, and Thomas almost died because he sounded genuinely worried and Thomas could already feel a very embarrassing crush developing and knowing him it would probably only get worse if the guy proved to be as dreamy as he seemed.

He sat up slowly, taking a sip of his juice box and glancing at the other guy from the corner of his eye.

"I’m starting to wonder if that blackout did something to your vocal chords. Can you speak?"

Thomas took a few seconds to empty the box and glare at him before putting it down. “I can. I wasn’t looking for your attention, I was looking for the attention of the talent scouts, I wanted to push myself. I’m aiming for a scholarship.”

"Oh they already took your name when I shared the team’s times with them before you guys started running today. You’ll probably hear from them within the next couple of days. I’m Newt, by the way, the new assistant coach. You’re an amazing runner, Tommy."

Thomas swallowed. Tommy? This guy was taking some liberties pretty quickly. “Thank you,” he muttered, running his hands through his hair as he received a warm clap on his shoulder by the assistant coach who seemed to have deemed that he was okay and that it was time to go.

"Oh, and Tommy?"

Thomas looked up at the other guy who’d turned his head as he walked away, “Seriously, you don’t have to go to any extremes. You have my attention.”


	34. "Please don't leave."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Thomas and Newt find each other a couple of weeks before Denver? They've been "blissfully" dating for this short while, and Thomas is initially convinced that he should leave Newt back at the Berg when they enter the city, but he has a dreadful feeling that something is wrong and gets back to the Berg to check on Newt. Seems his suspicions are absolutely correct.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. thE ANGST i love the angst.  
> 3\. Major TDC spoilers and a lil' bit of tweaking on the universe. I'm a terrible person, I know.

Thomas wasn’t sure what had drawn him back to the Berg, except of course one thing that was painfully obvious. He couldn’t be separated from Newt for too long, just in case they didn’t find a cure. He couldn’t waste a single day if Newt was losing it. He knew he’d regret every second not spent with the blond, and that was probably selfish, but fuck the world, fuck a world that could knowingly let WCKD do these things without rebelling, and fuck everything and everyone who wasn’t Newt because Thomas had a sinking feeling in his chest that something was horribly,  _horribly_  wrong and he needed to get to Newt before it was too late.

When he saw the Berg-door open he knew he was right.  _No_.

He didn’t even know how he’d made his way out of the city, he couldn’t recall if Jorge had helped him, because his entire brain had been focused on the image forever edged in his mind, that first smile Newt had ever sent him, and now he felt a slow sense of dread that he might never see that smile again and it terrified him.

"Newt?!"

Of course it had been stupid to call out, but being Thomas he only realized that after a pair of rough hands grabbed him from behind and forced his arms to his back, “Shut up. If you’re smart about this your and your friend won’t get hurt.”

And then they moved, and Thomas bit down every furious comment that was sitting on the tip of his tongue, because this wasn’t about him, this was about Newt, and he needed to find out what was happening. If this was those foul officers from inside the city that had come out here to find Newt, Thomas didn’t know what he’d do. He trusted them about as far as he could throw them, and he honestly wouldn’t put it past them to hurt Newt as a result of their own anger and fear. The room opened up into the back of the Berg, and finally he saw Newt’s face. He didn’t even look scared, even if he was surrounded by multiple people in ratty clothes, and though none of them seemed as bad as the ones they’d encountered there, they reminded Thomas of the ones they’d run into in the Scorch. Cranks.

But why would they hurt Newt? Hadn’t he told them?

"Hi Tommy." Newt said, sending him a weak smile, and it felt like a stab to Thomas’ heart that he was still being held here, unable to move over and take that sunken face into his hands and kiss everything better.

It took him a couple of seconds to find the words to proceed, “What’s going on, Newt?”

The blond grimaced, then smiled again. That apologetic smile made Thomas’ insides clench uncomfortably. When Newt didn’t say anything he had a brief struggle with the person holding him, a big guy with greasy, rough hands, before he was let go and rushed over to the other boy. And  _fuck that_ ,  _fuck them all_ , it didn’t matter, so he wrapped his arms around Newt and pulled him as close as he could, enveloping him in an embrace designed to tell him that everything would be alright, although Thomas had no idea how that would happen.

"We’re taking him with us," someone said, and Thomas lifted his head from Newt’s blond locks, his face snapping to where the voice had come from. The voice was gentler than he’d expected, and the look of understanding on the woman’s face made him sick to his stomach. She pitied him. They were going to take Newt away, they knew they were taking him from someone who loved him, and it didn’t change their minds. She just stood there, looking at him like he was some poor, young kid who couldn’t possibly grasp the seriousness of the situation. 

"You’re not taking him with you, that’s ridiculous, he belongs here," even to himself his words sounded childish, but he pushed on, "He belongs with his friends," and if his voice cracked, even these crazy bastards were kind enough to not call him on it, "He belongs with  _me_.”

The slim body in his arms started trembling ever so slightly, and for a second Thomas thought Newt was crying, but his boyfriend steeled himself and pushed away from Thomas softly. “I’m going, Tommy.”

"What?" Of everything he had been through, every second leading up to this, every fight, every wound, every moment of this living nightmare, this had to be the worst. "You’re not leaving, that’s ridiculous, why would you leave? We’ll take you with us and we’ll figure something out. We’ll see if we can steal some of that Bliss stuff from you and slow it down and, and-"

"And what, Tommy? There’s no cure. WCKD admitted that there’s no cure, they don’t have it and now they don’t have us to help them complete it. I wouldn’t change that for anything, but you have to let me go."

Thomas couldn’t believe it. It felt like his entire body was filled with lead, and he didn’t even care about the tears that had started streaming down his face anymore.  _Fuck them all_. They could see it, they could laugh at him for all he cared.

"Please don’t leave," he whispered, finally giving into the urge to bury his face in Newt’s shirt and just inhale, and then it all came crashing down. He was losing Newt. He was going to lose him now after everything they’d been through, after finally having realized his feelings for him, after the few "blissful" weeks they’d had, it was all slipping through his fingers, and there was nothing he could do to stop it except utter his frantic please, "Please don’t go, I love you, please Newt."

There was snickering behind him, but Thomas couldn’t bring himself to care until he was roughly pulled away from Newt’s embrace, and he felt that good old rage enter him, the one directed at WCKD, at the entire world, at whoever released this virus, and he didn’t even realize he was kicking and screaming until someone punched him in the stomach,  _hard_. 

"Leave him alone! Leave him! I said I’d bloody leave with you! Just sod off and let me say goodbye!"

And surprisingly, they did, but all Thomas could do for now was heave and close his eyes against the burning, close his heart against the rage and the despair, and try to close himself off from Newt, whose fingers were now roaming across his ribs, trying to figure out if something had been bent or broken, and when he found there was no real damage done he put both hands on Thomas’ cheeks and pressed a long, close-mouthed kiss to his lips. “I love you, Tommy, I can’t risk going mad and hurting you. You’ve seen them. They forget their humanity, we don’t know when that’ll happen to me, and I’m not going to allow myself to hurt you.”

"Please," it was nothing but a whimper, maybe so soft Newt didn’t hear him, because the blond let go of him, and started moving towards the exit.

"Goodbye, Tommy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. And of course everything proceeds from here with Thomas picking himself off of the floor and vowing to get Newt back from the Crank Palace, and well... you know how it goes from there *stabs self in chest multiple times*


	35. "Teach me how to play?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas really wants to learn how to play the piano, but he's finding it sort of hard to focus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [renderedrestless](http://renderedrestless.tumblr.com/) on tumblr on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet)!  
> 2\. This was so fun and cute to write omfg.

Thomas had known Newt for a long while before he finally found the courage to ask. It wasn’t that he expected him to say no, because Newt was probably one of the best guys he knew, but he was nervous to ask Newt for anything at all, which probably had something to do with the huge, dorky crush he’d had on the Englishman for as long as he could remember. He hesitated because there were two possible outcomes: Newt would say no, which would be devastating, or Newt would say yes, which would probably be even more devastating, because from the point where Newt said yes until the point where he finally got to teach Thomas, he’d have an unknown amount of time to freak out, and that was honestly terrifying.

Thomas wasn’t one to overthink in general, which made this thing with Newt even worse, because where he usually jumped into things head first without even giving it a second thought that was definitely not the case with a certain blond.

“You’ve been lurking there for a while now, Tommy, what’s going on?”

God damn it. He hadn’t thought Newt had noticed him, but here he was, looking like a major creep. He blinked and walked forwards towards the blond who’d seemingly known he was there without even turning around. He’d not even stopped playing, the fucker, and Thomas’ eyes drifted from long, slender fingers teasing soft sighs of sound off of the piano keys and to the back of Newt’s annoyingly perfect head. His hair was a fluffy mop on top of his head right now, clearly showing the telltale signs of having been run through by those perfect fingers, and Thomas really liked it like this. He liked the slicked back version Newt went for when he played concerts too, but this was… this was different. This made him want to run his fingers through it, and it was horrible and Thomas most definitely hated it.

“Teach me how to play?”

“I’ve been waiting for you to ask,” Newt laughed, an easy laughter that made Thomas feel slightly foolish for having hesitated, “Get over here.”

Thomas would like to think that he walked over calmly, but even he couldn’t make up that convincing a lie, because he practically tripped over his own feet to get over to Newt and slide down on the chair next to him. “What do I do?”  
Newt rolled his eyes slightly and turned to smile at him, “Do you know anything to begin with?”

Thomas blushed a bit and shook his head, “Uhm, no.”

A small shrug was the only answer he got from Newt, who then stood up and leaned in to grab his hands. Thomas really hoped his full-body shiver wasn’t as pronounced as it felt. Gentle hands pushed and pulled at his until they were spread on the keys of the piano in some chord Thomas didn’t recognize. It sounded nice, though. “What am I playing?”

The low chuckle behind him made the hair at the nape of his neck stand on end. “It’s hardly playing yet, Tommy, but the chord’s a C.”

Yet again Thomas found himself flush, but something else was way more present in his mind; the way Newt had leaned in just a little closer. “Uhm, so what now?” he asked, hoping his voice didn’t crack too much at the end.

“Now,” Newt smiled, “You do this,” he instructed, moving Thomas’ fingers again and pressing them down. Then he moved them another time and another time and another time, and Thomas started to catch the tune. “Wait, is this from the Lion King?” He asked, feeling somehow elated that he at least recognized the song, because that meant that even though he was doing close to no work himself, at least he wasn’t screwing it up.

“It is,” Newt confirmed, and Thomas could hear the smile in his voice (and feel it rush to his stomach where butterflies were erupting in violent waves of what could only be pure happiness). The blond’s hands took over, picking up the pace and adding in small strings of improvised notes, and Thomas closed his eyes and enjoyed listening for a while, only too late noticing that he was leaning back against a warm chest. “Tommy?”

He instantly bolted forward, embarrassed by what had just happened. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, I was just gonna say that my back was starting to hurt. Mind if I sit back down?”

Thomas shook his head. He definitely didn’t mind, which kind of worried him, because he liked being close to Newt, and maybe he liked it a bit more than was completely fair if Newt just thought he was gonna give him piano-lessons and Thomas was secretly creeping on him.

“Anything else you’d like me to help you with, Tommy?”

Thomas blinked and turned his head, only to find Newt’s eyes very, very close to his. “Uuuuuuuuh-“

“I mean, I’m sort of disappointed if you only came for the piano-lessons, using my crush on you like that.”

That would probably had lead to a kiss if they’d been the main characters in a romantic comedy that would be where they kissed, but since this was more comedy than romance, Thomas took this second to choke on his own spit and almost die.


	36. "I'm pregnant."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teresa has some news that will change Newt and Thomas' lives forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. You know how it goes by now. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. I promise it's not sad this time.

“I’m pregnant.”

Newt drew a heavy sigh, steeling himself for the no-doubt ridiculous conversation they were about to have. “Tommy, you’re a guy, you don’t just get pregnant.”

“Well, I mean, theoretically it can be done and have you considered alien abductions and-“

“Is this going somewhere? I’m trying to study, Tommy, this is getting ridiculous.” Newt muttered, hoping to remind his boyfriend of the very important exam he had on Monday before they got sucked into another three-hour long conversation on the possibility of aliens existing. With Thomas everything was possible.

“I didn’t mean a real baby, a foodbaby. Your mother shouldn’t leave us so many leftovers, you know I can’t stop myself.”

A groan. “Did you at least save some for me?”

A small pause. “Yes.”

“No you didn’t.”

“No I didn’t,” and if Thomas hadn’t sounded so upset, Newt would probably have been mad for real, but he couldn’t bring himself to, instead he rolled his eyes, snorting.

“I guess you’re going for groceries then, leaves more time for me to study.” Newt stated, waving over his shoulder and ignoring the wounded sound Thomas made. A small peck on his cheek made his lips quirk up ever so slightly, and with a small eye-roll he turned is head and pressed his lips to Thomas’ in a short kiss, “You’re not getting out of it just because you’re a brilliant kisser,” he chuckled, patting Thomas’ head before his boyfriend bounced off like a hyperactive puppy-dog. He only got to opening the door, though, before stepping back in. Newt turned, surprised that Thomas came back in after having been so ready to go.

Teresa, on the other hand, seemed on the edge. There was something weird about her whole demeanor, but there was an underlying smile on her lips. It was eerie, really, because Teresa had never been the super smiley type, not even after she started dating Brenda and got the home she’d always searched for.  
“What’s up, Ter?” Thomas asked, lips quirking up in a nervous smile. He’d been jittery before, but now he seemed downright electric, nervous, and suddenly it struck Newt. They both knew why Teresa was like this. He stood up immediately, shoving his chair back and moved to stand next to Thomas, nervously awaiting the news that would either determine maybe another year of hard work or be the happiest they’d ever gotten.

“Are you going to invite me in, or am I just standing here?” Teresa asked, a note of laughter in her voice, and her shifty eyes made it sort of hard to decide if they should be worried or happy. Hope was blossoming in Newt’s chest and it was terrifying, but obviously both him and Thomas moved back, shuffling into the living room again after having closed the door behind Teresa. Of course, Thomas was already fussing over his oldest friend, and Newt couldn’t help but smile. He’d have done the same thing if Teresa and Brenda had decided that Brenda should be the one to do this.

“Well?” Thomas asked, hardly controlling himself from bouncing as he helped Teresa sit down (only to be flashed a very mean glare, which to be fair he should have predicted because of course Teresa wanted no one’s help even in this.)

“Congratulations. I’m pregnant.”

Newt would like to have said that his boyfriend handled it like a champ, but Thomas made a weird, choked up sound that honestly sounded like an animal dying.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to go,” he stated, fighting to keep his own voice under control.

Teresa shrugged, a huge grin now spreading over her face. “That’s what Brenda said. Fuck how it’s supposed to go, we’re gonna be parents.”

Thomas would forever claim that Newt shed the first tear and Newt would deny it for just as long.


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas has been monitoring Newt on the screens ever since he went into the Glade. What he thought was friendship, he's now realized was something more, and when Newt's brainwaves change due to depression his worry keeps growing. As Newt starts climbing the wall, horror grows in him, and he grows desperate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Spoilers.  
> 2\. Warning: Suicide attempt, huge shocker.  
> 3\. Happened because of [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/113522320700/dinosaurstilinski-no-but-what-if-thomas-saw-newt)

Newt’s brainwaves had changed over the last many weeks, which was only to be expected, it was the point of the whole thing. It was the  _way_ they changed that gnawed at Thomas’ already guilty conscience. Newt showed signs of depression and Thomas knew it was his fault.

“Tom? Where’s he going? That’s not his route for today.” Teresa’s voice ripped him from the thoughts that had yet again taken over his mind. Something they seemed to do a lot lately.

“Maybe he just wants to explore.” Thomas muttered, fiddling with the camera angles and sending messages out to Beetleblades to follow Newt. When he started climbing the walls Thomas frowned, doubt creeping into his mind. He’d asked to be assigned to Newt, having been his friend before Newt was sent into the Maze.

He’d only later realized that the emotions he’d read as friendship were really something else.

“What’s he doing?”

Thomas blinked, turning his gaze to the screens and felt his heart sinking. Bile was rising in his throat, and he felt panic expand his chest. "He's gonna jump," he whispered, ice pumping through his veins, and for just three seconds he watched Newt climb farther and farther up the wall, and then he snapped out of it, bolting up from his chair. "Do something, Teresa, send a Griever to scare him down, make it rain, thunder, anything,  _do something!_ " he screamed, his own voice hardly recognizable to himself as he sprinted towards the prep room.

"Rachel, I'm gonna need you to prep me, I'm going down there, I can't leave him alone anymore! They're there because of us, Newt is killing himself because of  _me_!" And Thomas felt a strong burst of affection run through him underneath all the panic when Rachel immediately followed him, her hair whipping around her face as she followed, pulling on the scrubs and ignoring the shouts from Teresa and Aris.

"Thomas,  _don't_ , it's not time yet!" The scream came from Teresa, but it was Aris' hands that grabbed him from behind, holding him back.

A loud crack reached Thomas' ears, and he knew he'd broken Aris' nose with his elbow, fighting to get free, but now Teresa was there too, and he felt tears spill over his face, betrayal blossoming in his chest. "Let go! I need to get in there!"

"It's too late, Tom, he already jumped."

“No,” it felt like something cracked inside him, “No, why didn’t you stop him?” the cracks were spreading, and his eyes started burning, tears threatening to fall, “Teresa, why didn’t you stop him, you know how I feel about him!”

“Tom, there was nothing I could do,” if Thomas’ emotions hadn’t been boiling, he would have felt bad about the tiny, broken tone of her voice, but all he could think of was Newt jumping from up there. Newt having been through so much, that he’d given up, and all of it being Thomas’ damn fault.

He was spiralling, and he knew it. He could feel himself slipping into the dark thoughts, and he shoved at Aris’ arm hard. “Fuck you all.”

“Thomas!” Rachel’s voice hardly made him look up, but her next words did. “He’s alive! He hurt his leg, but he’s alive!”

Relief flooded through him, and Thomas didn’t even spare Teresa and Aris a glance, knowing he’d feel bad about this later but unable to care right now, as he rushed over to Rachel. “Reprogram the Grievers. Just for now. Please. Just until someone can find him, I know Alby is nearby. Get him there, I don’t care how, just get him there.”

And Rachel did, leading Alby towards Newt, while Teresa and Aris drew in closer (Aris’ nose still bleeding), Aris instantly getting to work on reprogramming the Grievers. Teresa put a soft hand on Thomas’ shoulder, and another wave of guilt hit him, this time for the way he’d treated the friends who’d always cared for him, who always had his back even when he was being an irrational jerk. “Thanks,” he muttered, his voice almost cracking, and he squeezed his eyes shut for just a second before refocusing on Newt’s pained face, and he swore to himself that he’d spend the rest of his life making this up to Newt.


	38. "I thought you were dead."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas is on his way home from a business trip when there's a car-crash on the highway. Newt can't get in contact with him and panics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Angst.  
> 2\. Sadness.  
> 3\. I'm sorry, idk if this turned out well enough, I'm not particularly impressed myself, but eh.  
> 4\. Prompted by cutiepie [noxthelights](http://noxthelights.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet).  
> 5\. Like my stuff? Wanna tell me I'm the shuckiest shuckfaced shuck you've ever seen because of all this angst? Come say hi on [my tumblr!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/)

Newt had always been what his sister called “a thinker”. Overthinking things was his specialty, and the tendency to make things way worse in his head than they already were, to dwell on the terrible stuff and panic about things were all tendencies that had only gotten worse throughout a life of disappointment and hurt. Everything from boyfriends to parents to friends had been ripped from him, which was probably why he held onto his tight-knit little group of friends with everything he had.

It had inspired two things in him:

An almost compulsive tendency to worry about people he cared about, and a downright unhealthy tendency to need to fix everything. He cared about his friends, and that was what he told himself repeatedly, even if his sister insisted that his tendency to shove his own emotions to the background was bad for him. He knew it, but he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

So when he heard about the crash, he knew that the panic was coming, but he could do nothing to stop it. Thomas was on his way from the airport. The lecture he’d given on engineering had gone splendidly, and Newt had talked to him after he came back, telling him to drive safely and get home as soon as he could. Thomas had promised to hurry (safely) and bring some take-out with him.

It shouldn’t take that long from the airport, the drive was 45 minutes max, and after an hour had passed Newt’s slow feeling of dread was spiraling out of control. Turning on the TV to find out that there had been a huge crash on the highway had sent him into a full-blown panic. His chest was heaving, and his eyes kept dancing to the clock on his phone even though he knew it had been mere seconds. He’d called exactly 14 times so far, but it kept going straight to voicemail, and if there was anything that could’ve made him more panicky that was exactly it, because Thomas hadn’t mentioned his phone needing to be charged and he probably would have wouldn’t he?

Before long tears were streaming down his cheeks, and he was pacing, waiting for his phone to ring, already steeling himself for the horrible news that he was so certain would arrive next time his phone started ringing.

 _“Please don’t go,”_  he whispered to himself, eyes glued to the phone as the numbers changed once again. It had been almost two hours by now, and he felt like he was going to puke. They’d just moved in together. Times was just about to get so great for them, and now Thomas was ripped from between his fingers like this, and he knew that he shouldn’t expect the worst, that he was freaking out, but the rational part of his mind was effectively squashed and shoved in the background by the panic that was still exploding in his chest, and he didn’t want to cry, he didn’t want to panic, but he couldn’t help himself. He sat down on the floor, curling in on himself, and allowed his body to be wrecked by shudders that left him trembling. “Please, Tommy. Please.”

He only looked up, heart jumping in his chest when the door opened, and he was on his feet again before he even registered his own movements, sprinting to the door and flinging his arms around Thomas’ neck, effectively knocking him off his feet. “Ow! Newt, what’s going on? Relax, ow, my ass, what’s going on?” Thomas’ lack of coherency didn’t even register, because all he could do was bury his face in his boyfriend’s neck, inhaling his scent and trying to get a hold of his breathing and his racing heart.

“I thought you were dead. Why didn’t you call? You should have called me!”

The helpless shrug Thomas supplied didn’t really answer his question but it didn’t matter. Thomas was here now, Thomas was okay, and that was the only thing that was important anymore. Newt hadn’t realized before now how big a part of his life Thomas had gone and made himself. He hadn’t realized that he’d have no idea how to go on if Thomas left him now. “My phone died,” Thomas replied lamely, his arms closing around Newt and holding him close, because obviously something was very, very wrong, and he couldn’t bring himself to care about them sitting in the dirty hallway of their beat-up apartment building. “I’m sorry, there was an accident at the highway and I had to wait for a while before I could drive on, and the food,” he paused and glanced at the Vietnamese take-out that was now spread all over the floor. He was pretty sure the sauce from the noodles was currently seeping into his jeans but that wasn’t important. Oh. The accident. “Newt, I didn’t… were you scared I’d crashed?”

A small nod was all the answer he got and needed, because Thomas stood up, cradling Newt in his arms with only a bit of difficulty. Newt might be tall, but he was gangly and honestly didn’t weigh a lot. “I’m here, okay? I’m not going anywhere,” he promised, carrying his boyfriend inside, spilled take-out be damned, and kicked the door shut behind himself, and then he started to process of kissing away Newt’s tears and reassuring him that no one was leaving.

“I’m sorry, Tommy, I didn’t mean to freak out, I just couldn’t stand the thought.”  
Thomas shook his head, flashing a quick smile at his boyfriend. “Don’t be stupid, it’s fine. I know you, I should have found a way to call,” he whispered, sitting Newt down on the couch and kissing his temple, “I could never blame you for worrying about me. I’m not going anywhere, though.”


	39. "Marry me?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt are enjoying a nice day at the park. Thomas is struck with how much he'd like to spend the rest of his days with this nerd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. You know the drill. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. My shipper heart is jumping with happiness.

Thomas didn’t consider himself a romantic per say. He was sort of goofy, he was hyperactive as hell, and he knew he drove Newt crazy most of the time. He forgot birthdays and anniversaries (to be fair, Newt forgot anniversaries fairly often as well, the person to remind them was, surprisingly enough, Gally of all people) and he never got flowers. Partly because Newt was allergic, partly because it seemed so cliché and Thomas didn’t really consider stuff like that, which might make him a bad boyfriend, but Newt didn’t seem to mind much. It was a good thing that the two of them were so similar, because that meant that cuddling up on the couch was just as romantic to the two of them as going to a fancy dinner.

And that was the situation Thomas was currently in – or one like it. They weren’t on the couch per say, but they’d decided to spend the day doing something casual together. So here they were, at the park on a blanket, and they hadn’t had some big picnic or anything (Nutella sandwiches, why on earth would they have needed a big picnic? There was nothing better), but the sun was shining and their dog Polarbear was running around, barking happily as he played with a little girl who had fallen in love with the dog as soon as she spotted him. Newt had hated the name Polarbear from the very second Thomas decided on it, but seeing as the coal black dog had been a present from Newt to Thomas, he’d had to deal with the name. Polarbear wasn’t really Thomas’ top priority right now, though, seeing as he’d never run off or anything of the like, he was just a black glimpse in the corner of Thomas’ eye, while his real focus was trained on something distinctively blonder.

Newt’s lashes looked almost golden in the sunlight, and the way the sun graced his skin just enough to have colored his cheeks a little through the day so they looked like they were dressed in a permanent blush. The Englishman was dressed in a tank top and a pair of green khaki shorts, his hair was ruffled from one particularly enjoyable bit of tumbling in the grass with Thomas, and he looked absolutely amazing. And it sort of hit Thomas right then and there. He was going to spend the rest of his days with this person. He wanted to wake up looking at Newt every single morning, and he wanted to see him last thing every night before going to sleep. He wanted to grow old with him, he wanted to marry him and have children with him (they’d have a talk some day about whether they’d adopt or find a woman to carry the child for them, Thomas wasn’t that far in his planning, he’d always been an impulsive kind of guy who didn’t spend a lot of time worrying about the future after all). He wanted all of this with Newt and so much more. He wanted to bicker with him about what sort of plates they should get, he wanted to decide on a new couch together, he wanted to walk through the streets of Rome and go to Disney World with Newt, he wanted to take the nerd to that Harry Potter theme park Newt wouldn’t stop rambling about. He’d even give Doctor Who a chance, if that meant making Newt happy, and as all these things dawned on him, one thing stood out more than anything else, and being Thomas, he blurted it without even thinking.

“Marry me?”

Newt cracked an eye open, looking slightly suspicious and a bit uncertain, as though he wasn’t sure if he’d heard Thomas right. “What did you say?”  
When Thomas didn’t answer immediately, Newt sat up slowly, “I could’ve sworn you just bloody asked me to marry you, Tommy.” 

The weight of what he’d just asked only now dawned on Thomas, and he felt his cheeks color. “I mean, not right now or anything, it’s not, I know we haven’t been together for more than two years and I don’t mean to rush you, I mean, it’s just that I could see myself marrying you and I just thought about that I really-“

He didn’t get much further than that before trailing off, because a slow smile was stretching on Newt’s face, and before Thomas knew it he was being pulled closer by the collar of his T-shirt, and the blond in front of him was now mere centimeters away. “Ask me again. Ask me like it’s not just something you think is a good idea right now.”

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’ll even that ugly beanie your grandma knit for me. Newt, will you marry me?”

Warm lips found his, Newt seemed determined to cover Thomas’ entire body with his own, public space be damned, and Thomas couldn’t stop himself from laughing into his mouth, “Is that a yes? I’d like an answer today, thank you, so I know if I should go look for another life-partner. Before you get us arrested for public indecency, preferably.”

“Shut up, or I’ll change my bloody mind, I’d say this is a pretty clear yes.” 


	40. "Looks like we'll be trapped here for a while..."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the London Tube it pays off to be the damsel in distress sometimes. It does for Thomas at rush-hour and his savior is a very handsome and blond gentleman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by a [brodiesansgter](http://brodiesansgter.tumblr.com/) on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge!  
> 2\. I have no idea how the tube works emergency-wise and how smoothly, just go with it man.

Taking the tube in the London Underground was a truly terrifying experience if you’d never done it before. Thomas had been living in London for about three weeks now, and he still had no idea how to get around, despite having a pretty good sense of direction in general. That was above ground, though, and this wasn’t. It was like the whole thing was designed to confuse people, at least that’s what Thomas thought, even though his professional self told him that that was an excuse and the whole thing was ingenious really. The efficiency of the thing was combated by no other system like it, and he actually knew that it had been built like this with all those weird directions in order to avoid having too many people clog a hallway at once. It made sense, and he knew that logically he should be able to figure this out – he couldn’t seem to, though, which meant that when he finally found the right platform and carriage to get him from here to King’s Cross where he’d need to change to another line. The people around him where shoving and pushing, and he bit back curse after curse, almost tripping until a warm hand caught him. His face snapped up in surprise and he almost tripped again when he saw the face of his savior.

The blond helped him inside after flashing him a warm, reassuring smile, and Thomas definitely didn’t mind the shoving and pushing this time because it meant him being pressed flush up against the chest of the very handsome stranger that had just saved him from the infamous gap to be minded. “It’s bloody hard to mind the gap when all these buggers are shoving at you from all sides, isn’t it?” the blond asked, and Thomas nodded dumbly, not even noticing the dirty looks that comment garnered them. “Are you okay? You seem a bit confused.”

Another mute nod was delivered before Thomas realized that he’d have to find his voice. The tall stranger was way too attractive with his blond locks and the smile lingering on his face and his bright eyes. The accent really didn’t help either. That was another thing Thomas hadn’t gotten used to yet, and if he was being honest with himself, his knees felt a bit weak. Didn’t stuff like this only happen in silly movies? He cleared his throat, knowing that the silence had already stretched on way too long for him to be smooth.  “I’m Thomas. Thank you for helping me. I was pretty certain I would’ve ended up under the train without you there.”

The blond just nodded and shrugged. “No problem, mate, I mean, I wouldn’t want your life on my conscience now that I could actually help you,” he laughed, one hand shooting out to steady Thomas when the cart started moving. It didn’t move away again after Thomas caught his balance, and Thomas found that he didn’t mind.

“My hero,” he laughed, hoping that it didn’t come off as cheesy as it sounded inside his head as he said it, and again, only seconds later, the stranger had to safe him from falling over once again because the cart stopped abruptly and around them people were flailing to regain their balance. “Wow. What’s going on? Does this happen a lot?” he asked, furrowing his brows although the lights had gone out and the blond probably couldn’t see it, “Also, do I get to know your name or should I just call you hero?”

“Newt, my name is Newt. And yeah, it’s not something that happens a lot, but it’s nothing to be scared about, we’ll probably start back up in a little while.” Just as he spoke the emergency lights flashed on, and he let go of Thomas’ hip and let his hand hang by his side instead. Thomas sort of wished Newt would had kept it there, but he wasn’t going to say.

He was just about to open his mouth and make a comment on the brilliance of the tube system when a voice sounded over the speakers. “Good afternoon travellers. We are currently experiencing technical trouble. Our mechanics are at work on the problem and it will be handled as soon as possible. There is no danger as long as you stay where you are and remain calm.”

A soft beep and silence fell. Thomas raised his brows at the now ghostly-looking face in front of him. “I’m so glad I bothered with the tube today,” he muttered sarcastically, although he couldn’t help his smile when Newt laughed at the comment.

“Well, looks like we’ll be trapped for a while… how about we share a cup of coffee from my thermo and you can figure out if you’d let me invite you on a date.”

Thomas decided that he could’ve been trapped worse places than this. “I’m pretty sure I’m cool with that.”


	41. "I've seen the way you look at me when you think I'm not looking."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt and Thomas are actors that have a hard time taking some of their lines seriously to the great frustration of their poor director Brenda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. Omfg I'm so sorry anon I know you probably wanted something different but I just couldn't help myself.

“I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice,” Newt leaned in closer, crowding into Thomas’ space as the brunet’s lips spread ever so slightly. Newt had a hand on each side of Thomas’ face, resting against the lockers, and Thomas’ look of mixed fear and adoration was too much when their lips pressed together.

And Newt lost it. It was unprofessional as hell, but he couldn’t help laughing his ass off. It wasn’t that Thomas didn’t do a brilliant job as an actor - actually, said actor had joined him in laughing so hard he almost had tears in his eyes, and Newt supported himself partly on the prop-lockers, partly on Thomas, as the two of them shook through a laughing fit that was unfortunately only enhanced by their director’s annoyed, “CUT!”

“I’m so sorry,” Newt snickered, wiping at the corner of his eye, “It’s just, I’m so, so sorry Brenda, I know we’ve tried this a million times, but it sounds like something straight out of a porno.”

“I know, right?!” Thomas chimed in, a hand pressed to abs that Newt knew from experience were rockhard, “I mean, I’m sort of expecting him to ask me if I’ve been a bad boy right after, I mean, there’s nothing about spanking in my contract, right?”

The giggles that erupted from the extras only seemed to annoy Brenda more, and Newt soon realized that this was a bad idea. “Okay okay, we’ll try again, I promise we’ll try to be serious this time,” he snickered, taking the glass of water that one of the runners on this movie offered him.

It was supposed to be a movie about a high school drama between two gay kids. Basically your standard teenage movie but with gay kids instead of it always being about the heterosexuals, which was fine by Newt, because he’d have been stoked to have stuff like that to look to right when he was coming out, but the script was just so ridiculous. He definitely should have read it before taking the role, but it had just sounded so good. Either way, they did their best with what they had, and if that meant getting to kiss Thomas several times through the movie, that was fine by Newt. His colleague was ridiculously attractive with the mole-dotted skin, the amber eyes and the chocolate brown hair that always seemed to be just on the right side of messy. And if he screwed up the kissing scenes a couple times more than he usually would have, that was only because he and Thomas had great chemistry and it was sort of hard to stop when he’d started. He should probably have felt bad about that, but he really didn’t, and Thomas didn’t seem to mind that much.   
“Take 19,” Brenda called, her tone sharp enough to cut through glass, and Newt quickly gave his glass back to the runner and turned to Thomas after having steeled himself for a couple of seconds, putting his hands back in position.

“I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I’m not looking,” he said, putting just a note of a growl in his voice and leaning in again, catching the way Thomas’ eyes shifted ever so subtly to his lips. He knew the cameras would catch that, and it certainly didn’t do anything to diminish Newt’s own attraction to his co-actor. Either Thomas could blush on command, or Newt would have to invite the brunet out some day.

“And cut.”

Fortunately, Brenda seemed to have what she needed, because only seconds later Newt and Thomas found themselves in a fit of giggles yet again.

“You two are horrible,” their poor director complained but her tone had gotten a lot softer after they’d finally gotten the scene.

“Don’t be mean, Brenda,” Newt said, an exaggerated pout on his lips, “We’ve seen the way you look at us when you think we’re not looking.”

More giggles erupted, making the slap he got across the back of his head when Brenda passed completely worth it. “Coffee break?”

Thomas nodded. “Coffee break,” and the look in his eyes had Newt hopeful that some day he might actually get to kiss him off camera.


	42. "If you die, I'm gonna kill you."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas considers himself a bit of a Bond. Newt wishes that his fellow agent didn't have quite so many babes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by the lovely [newt-to-town](http://newt-to-town.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet)  
> 2\. Idk Thomas being a huge dork is just one of my favorite things.

"If you die, I'm gonna kill you."  
  
Thomas shrugged, smiling sheepishly. “I don’t know what you mean. You’ve known me for close to four years now, and I haven’t gotten myself killed yet, have I?”  
  
Newt just arched an eyebrow. When Thomas waggled his own at the Englishman, Newt responded with an eye roll. The eyebrow waggling only got more pronounced, and in the end Newt gave up and let a small burst of laughter slip. “You’ve gotten close enough plenty of times, I wouldn’t say me worrying is completely unwarranted. Remember Italy?”  
  
Thomas at least had the decency to color ever so slightly at the memory.  
“To be perfectly fair, I couldn’t know that that waiter worked there.”  
  
This earned him another eye roll. “You could have stuck to your cover story with everyone. Or, you know, maybe keep it in your pants,” Newt huffed, snorting in disbelief when Thomas waggled his eyebrows again.  
  
“If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were jealous, English. Are you scared your life will become a dark and dank place without me? Void of your only sunshine?”  
  
If Newt’s cheeks colored just slightly at Thomas’ teasing, that definitely wasn’t because he was right. Nope. Definitely not. Newt did not have a lovin’ crush on a ridiculous American playing Bond. Especially not a ridiculous American who claimed that Daniel Craig was the best Bond so far. The mere thought made Newt roll his eyes again. This mission was dangerous and Thomas knew that, but he tended to be so cocky and Newt was sort of worried he’d manage to get himself killed some day. They’d been on plenty of missions together through the time, and though Thomas was a brilliant agent who handled stressful situations like a pro, he was also… well, Thomas. Newt had no doubt that he’d get the job done, but he had his doubts on whether or not Thomas would survive, and that was what nagged him. Because yes, his life would definitely be a lot darker without Thomas. Even when they weren’t on missions together, they stayed in frequent contact, and although Thomas didn’t know, Newt had come to depend on him. Maybe he supported a little crush on Thomas, but that was for his own private thoughts, and he certainly wasn’t about to own up to it now. “Just stay safe, will you? Call me if you need back-up.”  
  
Thomas did a small salute and disappeared out the door. It didn’t take much pondering for Newt to decide that he was going to follow his fellow agent.  
  
Thomas was stealthy enough in his movements, no doubt. It wasn’t like the guy was clumsy, he was actually surprisingly smooth, and it bothered Newt that he looked so good in tight black jeans and a button-shirt. The whole secret-agent-wearing-a-suit-with-gelled-back-hair would probably look amazing on Thomas but it was a bit outdated and drew way too much attention on actual missions and aesthetics wasn’t that important. Still, Newt couldn’t stop admiring the ass moving in front of him, and he knew he probably shouldn’t, or he should at least be honest with Thomas about his feelings, but he wasn’t about to share his emotions with a guy who banged at least one new person (of any and all genders, Thomas wasn’t really picky it seemed) on each mission. It was too risky for him, Newt wasn’t about to get rejected and get his heart broken. He didn’t have time to ponder on emotional stuff. His life was too complicated for stuff like that. He’d gotten so caught up in his own feelings and thoughts that he hadn’t noticed that Thomas had stopped moving until he all but walked into him and found himself pressed against a wall in a vice-grip.  
  
“Newt?!” the look of shock on Thomas’ face almost made the rough grip on his hands (that he definitely wasn’t enjoying, nope, not even a bit!) worth it. “Are you following me?”  
  
Newt quickly demonstrated his impressive wit by blushing like a bloody nerd and blurting, “Uhm, maybe.”  
  
 _‘Bloody brilliant.’_  
  
“Well,” Thomas started, looking just a tad more smug than Newt really appreciated, “You could’ve just said that you wanted a goodbye kiss.”  
  
The squawk Newt made (he wanted to call it something else, but nothing else really seemed to cover the mortifying sound that escaped him) was probably what told Thomas that he would have liked exactly that. Well, that and the fact that it was followed by a small, helpless whimper when Thomas leaned in close. “You’re really bloody busy, Tommy,” the blond tried, hoping that Thomas was just pulling his leg.  
  
“Hardly too busy to do something I’ve wanted to do for two years,” Thomas chuckled, and Newt hated to admit that he was holding his breath, “Although I gotta say, I thought you weren’t interested in me like that,” the brunet remarked, a smile still playing in his eyes, and he leaned in, his breath ghosting over Newt’s lips, “Hated to think that I was just not your type when all I could think of all the time was you.”  
  
And Newt realized right then and there that he was lost. If he’d had any more sense with him that he did, he would have kept himself from rushing forwards and crashing their lips together as hard as he possibly could, fingers tangling in the hair at the nape of Thomas’ neck, and groaning his annoyance into Thomas’ mouth. “You’re so bloody infuriating every lovin’ minute of every lovin’ day, I don’t know how I even stand you.”  
  
The soft chuckle that slipped into the kiss made goosebumps break out all over Newt’s arms but Thomas was kissing him back, so that didn’t even matter anymore. “It must be because I’m so charming,”  
  
“You’re a bloody idiot, now shut up and kiss me before you go. And don’t bloody get yourself killed. I’ll be expecting you to be back in a couple of hours.”  
  
The kiss he got in return made him absolutely certain that it was of utmost importance that Thomas came back, because this was too important. Frantic, soft lips were on his, and though the kiss started out hectic and rushed, Thomas soon took it down and nudge and let it grow softer, warmer, and then he stepped back, sent Newt a saucy wink and backed off with a small wave. “See you later, darling,”  
  
Newt groaned at the horrible English accent and shook his head. “That didn’t sound like Bond at all,”  
  
Another salute. Another eye roll. Three hours of nervous waiting and a lot of figuring out to do.


	43. "You heard me. Take. It. Off."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas has found out that nothing gets Newt all rough and tough like criticizing his favorite soccer team. He decides to utilize that knowledge to its full potential, but forgets to consider the consequences of provoking a hardcore fan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. Idk I just couldn't help myself on this.

“Take that off.”

Thomas blinked once, then twice, and cocked his head. “I’m not enjoying this new hello of yours. You’re in a strange mood, I wonder why,” he pointed out, laughing and making no move to strip out of the T-shirt that had apparently offended Newt.

“You know they beat us at that last match. It’s not cool, Tommy, they beat my team!” Newt growled, a dangerous look in his eyes, and if Thomas’ smirk grew just a couple of sizes. He looked way too happy with himself, and there was a reason for this. He’d found out on accident alone that Newt and him supported two very different soccer-teams (that had inspired a whole other conversation because “It’s called football, Tommy, not soccer.” “Well you’re in America now, so here it’s soccer.” “Sod off.” “I’d rather you suck me off.”) and that if there was anything that could get his boyfriend going it was a good, aggressive fight about soccer. It was a little odd, but Thomas certainly didn’t mind, because a frustrated Newt was also sort of a rough Newt and Thomas didn’t get to see that side of his otherwise sweet and caring lover that often. Which meant that of course he’d decided to be a provocative little shit in order to get Newt going.

“What? They did? Wow, that’s so weird, I didn’t even notice. I guess I must have missed that game,” he mused, eyes still playful and the corners of his mouth quirking up with amusement. Newt growled again, took a few steps closer and backed Thomas up against the nearest wall.

“You heard me. Take. It. Off.”

Another smirk. “How about you come over here and take it off for me?”

The blond’s eyes narrowed dangerously, and Thomas wasn’t about to admit that, but it went straight to his crotch to see the way Newt’s lip curled up in annoyance (that was probably something that he should explore later, but right now he was just going to enjoy). He squirmed a little bit as Newt put a hand on either side of his head and looked him dead in the eye. “You’re playing with fire, Tommy.”

“Well, at least I didn’t play as horribly as your little team did last week.”

Apparently that did it for Newt, because the Englishman growled again and in seconds Thomas found a hard, fit body pressed against him forcibly and Newt mouthed at his neck roughly. “Fucking hate you, you little twat.”

“Nah you don’t. You love me and you love my ass,” Thomas claimed, beaming when Newt pulled back his face to glare at the American, and seconds later he found himself shirtless. “Hey, I paid money for that, you know, just ripping it off might ruin it.”

Eyeroll. “Serves you bloody well enough for bringing that atrocity into my apartment.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“And you’re still dressed.”

“Well, that’s mainly your fault I’d say.”

This effectively spurred Newt back into action, because a rough, hungry kiss was pressed to Thomas’ lips, and if that wasn’t hot, Thomas didn’t know what the hell was. Newt’s lips were scorching hot on his, and it wasn’t really that surprising when it all came down to it, because Newt’s lips had always been able to drive him absolutely wild, and his boyfriend obviously had a weird concept of punishment, because the rough hands that pushed down Thomas’ sweatpants and ground their hips together with a groan that was downright sexual.  
  
It wasn’t long until Thomas found his pants and boxers halfway down his thighs, and again, if it hadn’t benefited him so much, he would’ve probably explained Newt a bit about pleasure and punishment. It wasn’t a hard choice to make, though, because Newt had wrapped long, slender fingers around him and it was fortunate that Newt had decided to move a hand to take a bruising grip on his one hip and press him against the wall, because if he hadn’t Thomas was pretty sure he’d have collapsed already. His breathing rapidly grew labored, and he wasn’t certain when, but at some point his hands had found Newt’s left bicep and right shoulder, and he clenched them hard, fingers digging into pale skin. His forehead dropped down to rest against Newt’s collarbone, and his hips bucked against the Englishman’s fist on their own accord. “Holy shit, Newt, fuck, I,”  
  
Where exactly he’d been going with that sentence he quickly forgot, because Newt did a small twist with his wrist on the upstroke that drew a string of needy moans from the back of his throat, and he had to focus to form the small warning, “I’m close.”  
  
And then Newt did something unforgivable. He let go.  
  
“What the fuck are you doing?” Thomas panted as his head shot up just in time to see Newt’s lips stretch into a smirk much similar to the one he’d worn himself just a small while ago. “Say that Manchester is the best team.”  
  
“You can’t be-ah-serious!” Thomas groaned, head thumping back against the wall because Newt had started mouthing at the base of his neck while his fingers snaked behind Thomas to give his ass a firm squeeze. “Newt! Please!”  
  
“Say it,” Newt persisted, the soft chuckle that followed sending a shiver up Thomas’ spine.  
  
“Fine! Manchester is the best team!” Thomas drew a sigh of relief when Newt’s fingers returned to stroking him, albeit way slower than he would have preferred. “Faster. Please.”  
  
Another low chuckle that went straight to his groin had Thomas questioning his own sanity because this was definitely not what he’d planned from this, but Newt taking control like this and making him beg for it made him feel weirdly hot. “Now Tommy, say that Manchester will win Champion’s League.”  
  
“Fuck you.”“Well that’s not bloody happening unless you say it,” if Thomas had been able to focus on stuff like that, he’d have glared.  
  
“Manchester will win Champion’s League,” he said, trying to go with sarcastic, but failing miserably as Newt sped up the movements of his hand and gave his cock an insistent squeeze and a whimper tore from his throat. “There’s a good boy, Tommy. You can come now.”  
  
The permission came belatedly, as Thomas was already trembling through his well-deserved orgasm.  
  
“I hate you.”  
  
“No you don’t.”  
  
“No I don’t.”


	44. "I think we need to talk."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. Oh look, sadness, yay.  
> 3\. Sequel to the next chapter, I promise happier times will come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thomas took a job far away without telling Newt. Newt is pretty hurt.

Thomas glanced up and immediately put his book down, uncertain because the look on Newt’s face looked so betrayed. “What’s up?” he asked uneasily, a little worried he actually knew what this was about.

"I found this in your desk. I wasn’t snooping, just looking for a stapler for my assignment. I didn’t know you were looking into jobs elsewhere," the blond said, refusing to meet Thomas’ eyes, and Thomas knew immediately that he’d screwed up.

His hands suddenly seemed incredibly interesting, because he couldn’t draw his eyes from them.  _Shit_. “Look, Newt, it’s not like I was going to leave without telling you or anything, I was just waiting for the right time-“

"But you were going to leave. You were going to leave without me. Without even speaking to me first, without hearing what I had to say. You were just going to uproot your life here and say ‘Sod Newt, it’s not like he bloody loves me or anything or that we talked about moving in together, he won’t mind if I abandon him for some big corporate job, it’ll be fine, he can stay back alone forever with his stupid broken heart and his stupid feelings.’, isn’t that right, Tommy? You were just going to leave, because you never see things from anyone’s side but your own, and I’ve always accepted that because I bloody love you, but this says you’ve already  _accepted_.”

Thomas squeezed his eyes shut, because what could he really say? Newt was right. He had accepted the job, he really wanted it, it was his big chance, but the now furious blond in front of him was absolutely right. He’d never even considered how this would affect Newt, and he knew he’d been thoughtless, but he couldn’t let go of this opportunity, no matter how much the thought of losing Newt stung. “Newt, I think… First of all, I’m sorry, you’re right, I should have talked to you, but I guess I just never thought of it because I always assumed that you’d come with me, that we’d do this together, and I just-“

” _Together?_ " and there it was, that soft crack in Newt’s voice that Thomas couldn’t bear, and when he looked up again the one person he always felt like he could lean on was in tears because of him, "You never thought of this as something we’d do together, Tommy," and the way that nickname sounded in a tear-choked voice was horrible, it grated and wore on him, and he felt his shoulders slump a bit more in shame, "This was something you were going to do, and I was going to follow you like the lost puppy I am. If you’d just asked, I would’ve, but I’m not… I’m not gonna uproot my entire life when you don’t even bother  _asking me_. I’d have to transfer, I’d have to move far away from my family, my friends, I can’t do that, you can’t expect me to do that.”

"But Newt, I didn’t expect-" but once again he was cut off, and Thomas knew he had no right to be frustrated, he knew that Newt had every right to be angry and him expecting to get the chance to defend himself was selfish, but this _hurt_.

"Shut up, Tommy," New hissed, "Shut the bloody hell up, Tommy, of course you expected. You expected because we both know that I’ve always loved you more than you love me,"  
  
Thomas vague  _'that's not true'_  was silenced by a burning glare, and he shut his mouth, “If you’d not expected that from me, you would have actually asked. You would have given me a choice on how to go from here. Don’t try to tell me you didn’t already decide. Either I go with you, or we’re done, that’s how it is, isn’t it? Well I’m done.”

And then he was gone.


	45. And I just wanna tell you, it takes everything in me not to call you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt is drunk and have a hard time not calling a very familiar brunette ex-boyfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sorry. I am kind of drunk and sad though.

Newt was staring at his phone, trying to burn a hole through it, because honestly, what bloody use did he have for it when all it did was tempt him?  
  
He swallowed a lump and closed his eyes, ignoring the stinging in his eyes. How dared Minho bring Thomas back in his life?  
  
He slid his finger over the lock-screen, opening his eyes and swallowing again, hating every second of this, and his heart clenched.  _Just because he wanted to have coffee doesn't mean he wants you back. He left. He left for his big corporate job at WCKD, and that's all he ever aimed for. You'll never compete with his job._  
  
The bittersweet taste in his mouth wasn't lessened by the amount of wine him and Gally had drunk. The friend had tried his best. He'd tried to convince Newt to not text Thomas the whole night, expressed exactly how much he hated the brunette for hurting Newt in the first place, and Newt had thought it worked for a while. He'd been angry, he'd been hurt, he'd been vicious, he'd hated Thomas, he'd cried, he'd been angry, he'd missed him, and he'd come full circle, going back to angry. But now Gally was passed out on the couch, and what could he do?  
  
_'I miss you.'_  
  
He wasn't sure if the tears had started falling before or after he texted the ex boyfriend, but he couldn't see through them anymore, and he wasn't sure how dimples and chocolate hair and honey eyes had formed in his watery eyes. It wasn't a picture he'd been trying to bring forth, but here it was. When the phone buzzed he felt how drunk he was for the first time, and he looked at Gally. He should wake him up. He should make the angry friend take his phone away, but he couldn't. His fingers felt numb as he unlocked the phone again.  
  
_'I've missed you every day since the day I left. I'm sorry, Newt.'_


	46. "I wish I could hate you."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas tries to apologize for leaving Newt all alone to go for a big corporate job. Newt has a tough time convincing himself that he shouldn't forgive Thomas that easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [simbas-infinity](http://simbas-infinity.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on my tumblr!  
> 2\. More sad, sorry.  
> 3\. Sequel to the previous chapter!

Newt had changed his mind about a hundred times about this. He’d typed out the message that he wasn’t available.

Then he’d deleted it.

Then he’d typed out the message that he didn’t want to see Thomas ever again.

And promptly deleted it because even if that was true sometimes, it definitely wasn’t the truth. If he never saw Thomas in his life ever again, he’d probably never forgive himself. He’d always regret it, so he certainly couldn’t send that.

He’d typed out messages about Gally having hurt himself, about his sister being sick, about being snowed in (they were in July, so that wouldn’t be terribly convincing really, but he was desperate).

In the end he’d realized that Thomas knew him too well for him to get away with any of his dumbass lies. Left was only “I don’t want to see you.” Or “I’m not strong enough to see you without throwing myself back into your arms.”  
Number one was sort of hurtful and also not entirely true. Number two was way too true, and Newt wasn’t ready to be that honest. The mere thought made him feel a tad queasy, and he wasn’t about to give Thomas that kind of power. Thomas wouldn’t use it per se. Thomas wasn’t a bad person. But he’d probably try to convince Newt to give it another try, and Newt just knew he wasn’t strong enough to say no.

He’d looked at his phone more times than he liked to admit. Every time he tried typing out a text to Thomas saying that he couldn’t make it today, the first thing he saw was that godforsaken message. ‘I’ve missed you every day since the day I left. I’m sorry, Newt.’

And of course he couldn’t. He couldn’t tell Thomas to leave him alone, he couldn’t tell him that he wasn’t interested, because the truth was that he’d never actually gotten over him even if it had been years, and his drunk text had only gone to prove that. He couldn’t actually blame Thomas for having invited him for coffee. He could only blame himself for having said yes. And Minho for bringing Thomas back here a little bit. That Thomas lived with Minho now didn’t exactly make Newt’s life easier. Newt told himself that if Minho hadn’t offered Thomas that they could live together, Thomas wouldn’t have been back, and that would have made his life so much easier.

Here he was, though, standing outside Iris’ Ice Cream and he sort of felt like he was going to throw up. He felt horrible and there was absolutely nothing he could do to make that feeling go away. He wanted to turn around and run. He wanted to run until he couldn’t find his way back anymore. He wanted to run so far that even the memory of Thomas was impossible to find but he also knew that there was nowhere on this Earth where that was possible. So instead he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and steeled himself before walking into the shop.

“There you are,” the sound of Thomas’ voice made a jolt of lightning run through his entire body.

“Here I am,” he muttered lamely, turning his gaze to the brunet, and the sight of him felt like a punch to the gut.

Thomas was wearing a pair of shorts and a tightfitting T-shirt. That wasn’t groundbreaking in itself, but Thomas had definitely grown into his own skin since Newt saw him last. He’d never been scrawny per se, at least not while Newt had known him, but he was more toned now, his hair was as messy as ever, and he’d grown a slight stubble. Newt swallowed thickly, resisting the urge to run his gaze over his ex-boyfriend because if he did, he was surely lost. Thomas looked good and Newt hated knowing that. He also hated knowing that he was still slightly hung over from the wine yesterday and it probably showed.

Thomas looked like a million bucks and he looked like a sad, heartbroken idiot. The same sad, heartbroken bloody idiot he’d been four years ago. As if that wasn’t enough to make a guy cry, Thomas immediately flashed him one of those sunshine smiles and called for Iris. “Iris, he’s here!” and was immediately handed two ice cream cones. He jerked his head towards the door and Newt followed him out, still in awkward silence. Thomas remembered his favorite.

“You still like licorice, right?” Thomas asked, and Newt wasn’t sure if he was imagining it but Thomas sounded slightly nervous. They’d discussed this a lot. Thomas didn’t understand Newt’s love for licorice ice cream, but he’d always made a point of buying it.

Newt’s mouth felt dry. Once again that lump formed in his throat, and his eyes burned. “Yeah, yeah, I still like it.”

Thomas was, unsurprisingly, way more subdued now, and as they idly wandered down the street they ate their ice creams without uttering a word.

“I’m sorry,”

Newt’s throat constricted. “Don’t say that.”

“Why not?” the hurt in Thomas’ voice was undeniable, and Newt hated it. “I am sorry. I hurt you, it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I wanted to come back from the second I left but I was contractually obligated, I couldn’t walk out and I just-“

“Just shut up, Thomas. You don’t get to make me feel guilty for you leaving. You left me. You didn’t even tell me you were leaving until you already had, and that wasn’t okay. That won’t be okay because you buy me ice cream.”

He tried not to look at the brunet’s face but the wounded sound Thomas made effectively killed his resolve, and he hated the hurt he saw in those amber eyes. “Just… I wish I could hate you. But I don’t. And that’s not okay. I shouldn’t have texted you. It won’t happen again.”

His resolve was strong enough that he didn’t look back when he walked away.


	47. "You lied to me."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas shows up to apologize yet again, and Newt's resolve to not get back together with him dwindles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. Sequel to the former chapter.  
> 3\. I'm done with this now I promise, this is the last one in this verse.

”Newt please, just let me expla-"

  
”No Tommy, I’m hanging up.” And it was the hardest bloody thing he’d done in so long but Newt managed to press the button and turn his phone off. He couldn’t let Thomas explain. He couldn’t bear to hear Thomas explain to him how he’d suffered. He didn’t get to do that. Newt was the one who’d been hurt. He’d decided that he was finished with Thomas forever and now Thomas was walking back into his life and Newt just couldn’t let that happen.

  
Ever since the ice cream incident, Thomas’ liquid gold eyes had haunted him. The tanned skin that stretched over toned muscles, those broad shoulders and the hurt look in his eyes when Newt had told him it was all a mistake. He’d never admit this to anyone, of course, not even Alby, but he’d gone straight home and cried his eyes out after that. He hadn’t emerged from his room until Gally had knocked several hours after and asked with a softness to his voice that was so unlike him if Newt wanted some dinner. The blond had realized that if he’d said no Gally would probably have kicked Thomas’ ass without even stopping to find out what went wrong.

  
This was what Thomas could do to him – what Thomas had always been able to do to him. Thomas broke him like no one else, because Thomas had made himself a part of Newt’s life, he’d made himself an invaluable part of Newt’s life. Thomas had managed to merge himself with Newt in a way that had made him _more_ whole, even if he hadn’t felt like he wasn’t before he met Thomas.

  
And then he’d left. He’d made sure Newt needed him and then he’d run off for some fancy job, and now he was prancing back into Newt’s life with that sunshine smile and those honey eyes and his promises of comfort, and Newt’s heart ached for him. It felt like his insides was tearing. He wanted to call Thomas, he wanted to let him apologize, let him make his promises, let him whisper sweet words like only Thomas could, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t let himself be hurt this way again.

  
He knew that it was Thomas as soon as the doorbell rang but he had no power to stop himself from opening it. He hated the way his heart skipped a beat when he opened the door to reveal a very defeated-looking Thomas. The brunet didn’t even look up, just shifted his weight from one foot to another and clearing his throat. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have come. I know I have no right to get to explain myself. I don’t expect you to forgive me, I just need to say some things to you.”

  
Newt wanted to tell him to leave. He wanted to slam the door in Thomas’ face but his lips and his body betrayed him and before he even knew it he’d pushed the door completely open and stepped back. Thomas followed him, more subdued than Newt had ever seen him, and there was an awkward beat before Newt realized exactly how close they were and stepped back a couple of steps further. Thomas looked wounded that Newt made no move to take this to the living room. A small, mean part of Newt enjoyed the flash of disappointment on Thomas’ face. A small part of him wanted to make this hard on Thomas. “Talk then,” he muttered. It sounded way more broken than he’d wanted it to.

  
“I want to start by saying that I always loved you. I still do. I know you don’t wanna hear that,” of course he’d noticed the slight flinch Newt couldn’t hold back at this, “But it’s the truth. I’ve always loved you. I didn’t think when I took that job. I assumed you’d go with me because I couldn’t imagine a life without you. It was wrong of me but it wasn’t because I didn’t want you to come or that I expected you to uproot your life, I just honestly hadn’t even given it a thought because there was no version of my life inside my head where you weren’t with me.”

  
Newt’s throat was constricting again. It was closing up and his eyes were stinging, and when his hand flashed up to dry a lone tear from the corner of his eye Thomas was kind enough to ignore it.

  
“I know I was wrong to do what I did, Newt. But I need you to believe that I never meant to hurt you.”

  
Newt hadn’t expected to be angry, but a sudden fire erupted in his chest. “You lied to me. You lied to me, Tommy.”

  
Thomas looked genuinely shocked at the sudden outburst. “What? No I didn’t. I never lied about going, I don’t understa-“

  
“Shut your bloody mouth, Tommy. It’s my turn to speak, okay? You shut up and bloody listen. You lied to me. You said you cared. You made me depend on you. You made me believe that you’d always be there. You promised me that it would be the two of us forever that you wouldn’t leave. You did, you promised that you’d stay, and then you left.”

  
Thomas looked absolutely shell-shocked. “I… I never meant to…”

  
“I know you didn’t mean to,” now the tears were flowing freely, and if Newt wasn’t entirely blinded by his own tears, Thomas’ eyes looked a bit misty too, “But you did, and I can’t just forgive you for that because you’re sorry. I’ve never hated life as much as I did after you left, Tommy, and I hate that you’re back. I do. I truly despise the fact that you are back in my life and I know it’s not my town and I can’t tell you not to be here, and I won’t because despite how much you hurt me, I don’t want to never see you again, and that’s the problem. I need you to stop saying you’re sorry. I need you to stop telling me that you love me, because I’m not strong enough to say no to you, and I can’t still be in love with you when you decide to leave again, it’s not fair.”

  
Newt wasn’t sure if it was his confession, his tears or Thomas’ own that prompted his ex to walk over and throw his arms around him but it felt way better than it was supposed to be, and Newt finally let go of the sob he’d been holding back. “I wanted to hate you so bad. I was so angry with you and I missed you so much every lovin’ second of every lovin’ day and it was horrible.” 

  
Thomas drew in a shaky breath and was silent for a while before moving his head back a bit. Newt took a couple of seconds to lift his head from where it had been cradled at Thomas’ shoulder. There was a wet spot where his tears had fallen and he brushed at it for something to do with his hands, as though he could remove the fact that he’d cried by removing the proof of it. Thomas caught his fingers. “Leave it. It doesn’t matter. I don’t know what to tell you to convince you that I’d never do something so stupid again. I was an idiot.”

  
Newt found himself nodding, which made Thomas crack a small, tearful smile. Before the blond could catch himself he returned it. “You were an idiot. You sort of are an idiot still.” He hated the part of him that wanted Thomas to kiss him. He swallowed thickly and he could feel his gaze drawing to Thomas’ lips. It was bad and he shouldn’t but there was nothing he could do to stop himself from leaning forwards and sharing a slow, tearful kiss with the man who had broken his heart. “If you ever break my heart again,” he muttered, resting his forehead against Thomas’ so he could speak to the brunet without allowing too much space between their lips, “I can’t guarantee you Gally won’t murder you.”

  
Thomas chuckled and leaned in, pressing another soft, salty kiss to Newt’s lips.

  
“They’ll never find the body!”

  
A burst of laughter broke the new kiss, “Hello to you too, Gally.”

  
“Fuck off back to where you came from.”

  
Thomas’ arms tightened around Newt’s waist. “Never in a million years. I’ve found out I always had more reason to stay.”


	48. "We're in the middle of a thunderstorm and you wanna stop and feel the rain?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas really like cheesy romance movies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge!

“Tommy, this is ridiculous,” the Englishman groaned, his hair plastered to his forehead and his expression exasperated. Thomas had an annoying tendency to be able to make him do anything and everything, which meant that he was right now finding himself in the middle of the pouring rain, unsubtly appreciating the way the water had Thomas’ white T-shirt cling to his chest. Maybe it didn’t bother him as much as he pretended that it did.

Maybe nothing really bothered him that much as long as he was in Thomas, and even if it was a thunderstorm, the thunder was still only rumbling far away, and Newt had never really been able to deny his Tommy anything at all. The Greenie (Minho still insisted on calling him this, even if he’d moved here over two years ago and he wasn’t exactly new anymore) had really gotten under his skin, and even if this was a ridiculous situation, even if standing here in the rain, probably catching matching colds meant that they’d have to stay in bed a week or so, that really didn’t bother him. As long as he was with Thomas, nothing could really bother him that much. Actually, lying in bed with Thomas for about a week didn’t sound that bad, even if a cold wasn’t that appealing in general.

“It’s not ridiculous, it’s sort of romantic,” Thomas stated, spinning, and Newt noted to himself that maybe his ridiculously gorgeous boyfriend should consider getting a haircut soon, because the shaggy hair was whipping around his face and falling into his eyes because of the rain. Not that Newt really minded, because Thomas looked perfectly adorable with water droplets dripping down his face. Oh, and did he mention the white shirt clinging to a toned body? Anyway, it looked really bloody good.

He couldn’t resist the urge to roll his eyes, though, because even if Thomas looked like a million pounds in the dim light, he had to express how ridiculous standing around in the rain for the sake of romance was and a signature eye roll was just perfect for doing exactly that. “We’re in the middle of a thunderstorm and you wanna stop and feel the rain? You’re ridiculous. You’re bloody cute, but you’re ridiculous.”

And there it was. That sunshine beam of a smile that he loved so much. That huge, dorky smile that he’d fallen for so hard. With Thomas, it hadn’t been falling in love. He’d stumbled, he’d fallen face first into the idiot who was right now moving closer and slipping his arms around Newt’s neck. “I’m not ridiculous,” he pouted, and Newt didn’t have the heart to tell him that he looked like a bloody dork.

“You’re a little bit ridiculous,” Newt argued again, laughing softly when Thomas made a mock-wounded noise and rubbed their noses together in a quick Eskimo kiss. “You’re very, very attractive, but a little bit ridiculous. You only dragged me out here because you’ve seen it in the movies. American movies are so bloody cheesy,” he laughed, moving in to press a long, insistent kiss to Thomas’ lips. Thunder was rumbling in the far-away distance but Newt couldn’t find it in himself to worry, because Thomas’ lips were pressing against his and a soft, questioning tongue was running along his bottom lip as though they hadn’t done this a thousand times. It was weird with Thomas because even though Newt had never told Thomas about all the crap he’d been through, Thomas had always somehow sensed that Newt needed him to be careful. They’d taken it slow in the beginning, agonizingly slow, and Thomas had been so kind, so patient, that Newt had actually been a little surprise that the brunet had had the patience for it. Thomas wasn’t really someone to sit still for a long time, but he’d given Newt his full attention, he’d been the perfect gentleman, and although Newt had never felt like he needed someone to save him, Thomas had. And now they were here, his dorky boyfriend and him, kissing each other like it was the very first time, and Newt would never admit this but Thomas was actually right. This was extremely romantic, and he parted his lips without even giving it a second thought. Thomas was always allowed in but there was still something charming and sweet in him “asking permission” like this even after all this time. A small nip at his lip brought him back to reality and a pouting Thomas.

“Where were you?”

Newt made a confused noise, unsure what Thomas meant.

“Just now. What are you thinking about?” Thomas didn’t look that upset, just vaguely amused. The bugger could probably tell that Newt was wearing his goofily-in-love expression.

Newt really couldn’t deny it, though, so he just laughed and shook his head softly. “I just thought that even after all this time, it still feels like I just fell in love with you. I love you. Thank you for everything.”

This time the sound that escaped Thomas’ lips was happy and he pressed a little closer. A loud boom penetrated the pitter-patter of the rain, and Newt looked up. “Let’s get inside. I intend of spending the rest of my life with you, but I’d prefer if it lasted for more than a couple of bloody hours, you know,” and they might not be in a cheesy American movie, but that didn’t stop them from running inside hand in hand.


	49. ”This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had. Of course I’m in.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt got a science kit from Gally although they're both rubbish at science. Thomas wants to make a stink bomb.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. You know the drill. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 

“Why on earth would Gally give us a lovin’ science kit? He knows that we’re both rubbish at science,” Newt mused aloud, staring at the now-opened package with thinly veiled disgust. He was probably just a second from poking at it to see if it was already set to blow up.

“Alby says Gally doesn’t like us together. Maybe he’s hoping I’ll try to use it myself and end up blowing something up so you’ll dump me? Or maybe blow off an arm or something, I don’t know. I try not to think about what goes on in his head. That guy is one nasty fellow,” Thomas answered, shrugging and staring at the science kit in fascination. He did want to try it. Gally knew him well enough after one month to realize that Thomas wanted to try make it say boom. It wasn’t a good idea but Thomas had never been one to back down from a challenge. “I say we try to make a stink bomb and put it in his car.”

Newt’s snort of laughter told Thomas that he’d completed half of his mission. He’d made his boyfriend laugh, which was one of his absolute favorite things. Hanging out in Newt’s room on their one-month anniversary had been a good idea. He hadn’t expected anyone to get them presents, but here they were. Gally had given them this death-trap, Alby had given them two copies of the same movie so they could have one each and Minho had given them a bunch of condoms, which had made both boys blush profusely. How he’d gotten them, no one really wanted to know, because Minho’s parents sure as hell didn’t buy them for him. Chuck had given them a gift card to a burger joint that he worked at, which was pretty cool and honestly the best one of their gifts so far. Teresa had hinted she had one too, which was sort of worrying because Thomas wasn’t sure if she’d give them something incredibly embarrassing or something really cool. Thomas was ripped from his thoughts when Newt pressed a line of small kisses from the corner of his mouth to his jaw where he nibbled at the skin softly. “You’re insane. We’re not making a stink bomb.”

Thomas turned his head and sent Newt his best pout. “Why not?”

“Because he’ll manage to kill you without even being in the room. I don’t trust you and explosives.”

“It’s not going to actually explode. Much. We’ll google it. Please?”

Newt shook his head but the smile slid off of his face when Thomas flashed him the puppy-dog eyes. Thomas could see the blond’s resolve dwindling, and he beamed happily when Newt’s shoulders fell a bit and he sighed. “Fine, I suppose we could try. But we’re doing it in the garden, my mother will violently murder me if the whole house suddenly smells like rotten eggs.”

The small burst of laughter this brought forth was effectively stopped when Newt claimed Thomas’ lips with his own and a long, soft kiss made Thomas forget about stink bombs for a while. When Newt pulled back Thomas was positively panting. “Your mother wouldn’t murder any of us when I’m involved. She loves me.”

Sarcastic eye roll. “You’re bloody right she does. She’d probably spare you and take you as a son instead as soon as she’d gotten rid of my body,” Newt joked, making Thomas nuzzle the base of the blond’s neck with his nose. “This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had. Of course I’m bloody in.”

“Nah, she wouldn’t. Come on, let’s go!” he exclaimed happily. Newt sighed and stood up to follow his over-excited boyfriend into the garden.

“Fine. I’m not going to kiss you if you smell like arse though,”

Thomas just snickered happily under his breath and bounded down the stairs while Newt quickly grabbed his tablet in order to be able to Google how to make a stink bomb when they got outside.

Six tries later they finally finished, and Thomas bounded into Newt’s lap happily.

“Hey, I told ya Tommy, no kisses when you smell like this,” Newt laughed, although he quickly surrendered to another case of puppy-eyes and pressed his lips to Thomas’. 

“Gally’s gonna flip,” Thomas snickered gleefully, and Newt groaned.

“Can we not talk about Gally when I’m trying to snog you?”

“Oh, yeah, sure! Sorry!”


	50. "You did all of this for me?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt and Thomas just finished high school and finally they have time to have a romantic night to themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. You know the drill. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 

Thomas blinked in surprise as he stepped into Newt’s apartment. His boyfriend had been living on his own in all the time Thomas had known him. Or, well, not on his own, but with his roommate Alby who’d been surprisingly cool with going to stay with his friend Gally for a week so Thomas and Newt could spend some serious quality time for this holiday. It felt sort of weird to be done with high school and working through the summer holiday to have a bit of cash to go on when they started college in the fall. Thomas appreciated the freedom, though, and he wasn’t really sad about leaving high school – he just hoped that he and Newt could make things work even if they were going to go to school an hour from each other. An hour wasn’t too bad, and none of them were really worried, but he was aware that college changed people. Which was why they’d gotten the apartment to themselves for a whole week.

Thomas dumped his sports bag on the floor and looked around, surprised that the lights had been turned off. All the way into the living room a small trail of candles were left, all carefully placed so they wouldn’t set fire to anything. Newt fortunately knew that Thomas was sort of clumsy, so he’d obviously taken care to make sure they were placed so Thomas wouldn’t manage to knock them over or step on them. “Newt?”

“In here, Tommy,” his boyfriend called, and Thomas wasn’t about to admit that to Newt or anyone (especially not Minho, the jerk would laugh at him forever), but that English accent still went straight to his crotch after having dated the guy for over a year by now.

“What’s going on? This looks amazing,” Thomas muttered as he walked into the kitchen where Newt was obviously putting the last touches to what looked like a delicious three-course meal.

Newt turned around and sent him a small smile. “Wanted to do something special now that we finally have some time alone. You said you’d been stressed. You can put your bag in my room, I’m almost done.”

Thomas nodded and felt his expression stretch into a huge smile. “You did all of this this for me?” He may or may not have teared up a bit when Newt just nodded, but fortunately he didn’t seem to notice in the dim lights, and he rushed into the bedroom to throw his bag in a corner. He shrugged off his pilot-jacket and rummaged through the bag to find something more appropriate. If Newt was going for a romantic night Thomas wasn’t about to wear his dorky Avengers T-shirt. Fortunately he’d packed a button-shirt, which left him shirtless when Newt sauntered in. His boyfriend was – unsurprisingly – perfectly clad in a white, ironed button-shirt and a pair of black slacks that hugged his hips in a way that told Thomas that he should be excited for when his boyfriend finally turned around so he could check out his ass.

“Oh no, and I thought I was gonna spend the lovin’ night seducing you. All my work’s for naught,” Newt commented, smirking as Thomas felt himself color. Newt made his way over and put his arms around Thomas’ hips, kissing his cheek, “I’m kidding, Tommy. No pressure. I just wanted to do something romantic for you.”

The thing was, even if they’d been together for so long, there’d just never been a right time for their first time together. They’d done plenty of kissing, of course, and they’d slept together plenty of times – but sex just hadn’t been on the table. Thomas wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like he was _not_ ready, and he knew that Newt had been with other people before him (the thought sent a familiar stab of jealousy through him), which wasn’t surprising really. Newt was tall, blond, blue-eyed and English. It would’ve been more weird if he hadn’t hooked up with anyone. The thought that this was about seduction hadn’t even dawned on Thomas until Newt mentioned it.

Newt’s hands slid over his hips softly, moving to caress his back. “You better put a shirt on, Tommy, or I’m gonna have trouble getting through dinner,” Newt laughed, kissing Thomas’ temple before slowly removing familiar hands. Thomas had been shirtless around him before, of course, but Newt being a year older (he’d have to take an extra year after he transferred to get with the new syllabus, apparently the English one was different or something) and more sexually experienced still made Thomas a bit awkward about it now that they were touching on the subject. It didn’t usually bother him. Newt had never tried to pressure him into anything.

He got into the other shirt quickly, though, and started buttoning it before Newt swatted away his hands and took over. “There, don’t you look dashing?”

Thomas just rolled his eyes softly, mirroring an expression Newt made quite often without even realizing it, and leaned in to press a kiss to Newt’s lips. “Food first, then flirt, then you’re gonna see if you can get in my pants with that English charm of yours.”

Newt’s answering smile was probably enough to do just that but Thomas wasn’t about to tell. A guy could enjoy getting spoiled by his boyfriend once in a while.


	51. "Is there a reason you're naked on my bed?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt is very sexually frustrated after getting busted mid-hook-up with Minho's hot best friend. He's too embarrassed to pick things up where they ended, though, so Thomas takes it in his own hands to do something about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. You know the drill. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 

Newt had known Thomas for only about a month, but what a wild bloody month it had been. Minho had dragged his supposed “long lost best friend” to a party, Newt had gotten way drunker than he had intended and they’d ended up violently making out in Gally’s parents’ bedroom until said hothead had stormed in and screamed at them until Newt wanted to die from embarrassment.

Maybe it was the fact that they’d been busted, maybe it was that he didn’t usually hook up with strangers at parties, or maybe it was the fact that Thomas had had hand down both the front and back of his pants when the resident of the house had stormed in. Either way, it was embarrassing.

So Newt had tried avoiding Thomas and refused to talk about it.  
Two strategies made extremely hard by the fact that everyone but Gally bloody loved Thomas and that meant that the newbie was invited everywhere.

And, of course, his friends being the huge lovin’ dicks they were, no one could seem to stop sending the two of them knowing glances and ask him (and probably Thomas too, the mere thought made Newt cringe) about it.

A single day didn’t go by where he wasn’t reminded of that deep voice and those big, rough hands, and Newt really didn’t need the help of his so-called friends to recall that. Every evening when he closed his eyes, the picture of Thomas’ broad shoulders and strong arms was etched into his retina. Every night he recalled Thomas’ hands on him, one finger teasing him nested between his buttocks as long fingers wrapped around his aching erection.

To say that Thomas had taken over his life wouldn’t even be an exaggeration anymore, because when Newt wasn’t fantasizing about him, the annoyingly attractive bloke was there physically because Minho kept bringing him over. Probably on purpose.

Newt was going crazy to say the least. He felt way too awkward about the whole thing to do anything about it, and despite Thomas’ blatant flirting he had a tough time believing that the bloke was actually genuinely bloody interested now that he was sober.

So, it was awkward and Newt was in bloody sexual frustration hell. Thomas’ amber eyes flashed laughter at him and for every blatant innuendo and lame pick-up line, Newt grew more and more desperate. Last weekend he’d drunk-dialled an ex (fortunately he didn’t have Thomas’ number, or it would definitely have been him instead) who’d luckily been asleep, because Newt really didn’t need to make anymore of an arse of himself.

His use of porn had increased in frequency to an amount that had him really hoping that no one was spying on his internet activity. He’d seen everything.

Every cheesy situation from delivery guy to handyman to teacher spanking naughty student to soccer boys, and the only common denominator was that every time there was one brunet and one blond screwing the ever-living crap out of each other, and every time Newt spilled over his own trembling fingers with the same name flowing over his lips.

And that was exactly what he had planned for his night. A good, long wank that would leave his mind numb and his balls tingling. He wondered how many more of those it would take to get Thomas out of his system.

But none of all the porn he’d watched could possibly have prepared him for the sight that met him as he slouched into his bedroom, already in the middle of unbuttoning his shirt. “Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?” he was proud of the skepticism he managed to get into his voice. And that he could even talk, because his mouth was dry and his brain had gone completely haywire. Which was fair enough, honestly, seeing as all his blood had ventured south.

“Seems like I can’t get you to understand by flirting, so I thought a little hint would do us well,” Thomas laughed, and it really wasn’t fair that he could do that while lying stretched out, naked on Newt’s bed.

“I’m not sure this qualifies as a hint,” Newt muttered, eyes travelling down Thomas’ body slowly, and he knew he looked hungry. He also knew that there was a straining bulge in his pants already, and he was pretty sure he’d never gone hard this fast in his life. “How did you get into my apartment? I could call the police on you, you know,” he pointed out, hoping to shield exactly how desperate he was to make Thomas’ semi a full erection.

The brunet laughed again, seemingly undisturbed by Newt’s awkward comments, “Minho lend me a key. He’s also the one who suggested I gave you a hint you couldn’t ignore, seeing as you’re apparently quite dense with this stuff. Mind getting over here, or should I put my clothes on and start thinking of ways to kill myself so I don’t have to wait until I die of embarrassment?”

Newt blinked. “Minho? Please God tell me he didn’t say something embarrassing, what did the bloody bastard tell you?”

Another laugh, and somehow that was even more attractive than the very naked Thomas on his bed. “Uh, I think he used the word pining. I don’t really see a problem with that though,” he stated, and when Newt had yet to make a move, he sat up slightly and moved his hand between his legs, “Newt, do you want me to go?” he asked, completely contradictive to the way he was now circling his own dick with those long fingers that had frequented Newt’s dreams for so long by now.

“No!” the word slipped out quicker than Newt had intended, “I mean, uh, no. You can stay, I mean, now you’re already here.”

The smirk he received almost drew a whimper from him, but he managed to hold it in, and instead of standing there like a huge nerd, he shuffled out of his jeans and left his shirt hanging open as he made his way to the bed and crashed his lips to Thomas’. This evening was definitely looking up.


	52. "Hey! I was gonna eat that!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A couple of days ago, Newt's family's house caught fire. Everyone got away alive and Newt's mother sends him to thank the firemen that got them out of there. Newt has a hard time figuring out what to say to the person who saved his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by the lovely [fan-girl-it-up](http://fan-girl-it-up.tumblr.com) on tumblr!  
> 2\. Idk how I feel about this but I hope you guys like it!  
> 3\. Fireman idea from the every so lovely [haletrinity](http://haletrinity.tumblr.com) aka El Tommo!

“Uhm, so, do you want a tour?” the handsome fireman asked –  _‘Thomas, his name is Thomas’_  – and Newt found himself nodding although he really sort of didn’t. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate the firemen, he just didn’t really care about the fire station and he was sort of not that happy about being reminded of the situation that had brought him here in the first place. He’d probably agree to anything for Thomas, though.

“Sure, Tommy,” he said, smile blanching just a bit when he realized that he’d accidentally given the guy a nickname, “I mean, uh, Thomas. Sorry.”

The brunet just turned around and beamed at him, and Newt had to remind himself once again, that life was not a movie. His mother had told him that Thomas had been at the hospital to see him but he’d been asleep. The fireman had frequented the few of his dreams that weren’t nightmares, and Newt had been equally excited and sick to his stomach about going here with the cake his mother had baked.

“Thank you for the cake, Newt!” the Asian who’d carried his sister out called, and the dark-skinned guy who’d helped his mother waved at him together with the frowny one who’d supported his father.

“You’re welcome,” he called back, focused on walking straight. It was hard. He was still on crutches, and the doctors told him there wasn’t much they could do for his leg. Having to live with a limp for the rest of his life would suck of course but Newt supposed it could be worse. He could have died there, and he was painfully aware that he owed Thomas his life. He was reminded of that every time he closed his eyes and the red of his eyelids mirrored the flames. It was terrifying, and Newt knew for sure that he’d have nightmares forever. He had to move on, though. He had a family to take care of. Naya had managed to catch a nasty smoke poisoning and she was still sick. She would be for a while, although the doctors told them she’d be alright given some time and treatment. His parents worried, but they had to work to make sure they wouldn’t be completely screwed in case their insurance company was going to make trouble about this. Newt took care of Naya the best he could, hoping they could get her home soon so it wouldn’t be too much of a strain to pay the medical bills (once again, Newt didn’t carry a lot of belief in their insurance company) and made sure his parents got news as soon as there were any to give.

“Hellooooo? Earth to Newt? Newt? Can you hear me?” Thomas’ goofy smile met him when Newt turned his head, and the blond forced a smile.

“Ah, yes, sorry, got a bit caught up in my own head. Happens a lot these days, I guess being here sort of brings it back” he apologized, and Thomas’ smile quickly vanished off of his face. “No no, it’s not that, I mean, I’m grateful for you showing me around and of course we wanted to repay you, you saved our lives and-“

Thomas held up a hand. “No, I understand. You don’t want to be here, I get it. I’d want to move past that too. Let’s just skip the tour, it’s not that interesting anyway. Most people have seen a fire station when they were kids anyway, you know?” and then he opened the door for Newt, and Newt sort of wanted to find a way to sink straight through the floor, because who was this guy? He was a volunteer firefighter, he opened the door for Newt and he just seemed way too nice. It made Newt nervous and antsy, and maybe it was because Thomas had saved his life, or maybe it was because he was gorgeous and kind and he’d actually come to the hospital to see Newt afterwards but Newt had no idea what to say to him. Instead he was just limping after him silently, and he felt bad because he knew he was probably making Thomas uncomfortable but he simply had no clue at all how to make conversation with this amazing guy that just so happened to have saved his life.

“Look, Newt, thank you so much for the cake but you know that you didn’t have to come here, right? I understand if you want to put all of this behind you. I don’t really have any advice for you, I don’t think there’s a way to just get over something like that but if you want to you can call me to talk about it, okay? Would you like my number?” Thomas said, and Newt froze in place. Blinked once, twice, and then he looked down, color rushing to his cheeks.

“Uhm… Can I… can I invite you for coffee instead? To say thanks, I mean. I’d like to thank you specifically,” he wasn’t entirely sure where that came from, if it was a good idea or if it was even appropriate but he knew for sure that he was already regretting letting his big mouth get the best of him.

He only looked up at Thomas’ chuckle. “Yes, definitely. I’d love to go on a date with you. If that’s what it is.” He nodded without even realizing it, way too enthusiastically, but Thomas’ bright eyes were sparkling with something soft and safe towards his, and before he could say something stupid he reached over and grabbed a piece of the cake his mother had left there and stuffed it in his face.

Only problem was that he hadn’t noticed that it was the last one. “Hey! I was gonna eat that!” Thomas laughed, and Newt found himself blushing even more.

“Oh my God,” he whimpered through a mouthful of cake, embarrassed beyond comparison, “I’m so sorry, I’ll buy you cake when we go for coffee I promise.”

He almost died again when Thomas moved his hand to brush a crumb away from the corner of his mouth, “I’ll look forward to that. Do you need me to call you a cab to get you home?”


	53. "You need to wake up because I can't do this without you."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas is a professional runner and predicted to become the next Olympian Gold Medalist. Newt is his boyfriend and they just came out to the public when something tragic happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [twin2ovesj](http://twin2ovesj.tumblr.com) of Tumblr on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet)  
> 2\. This is so sad there's a sequel in the next chapter I swear.  
> 3\. Warnings: Character in a coma, hints of depression, traffic accident, mentions of homophobia, hinting at a hate-crime.

Nothing could have prepared Newt for what had happened to them. Thomas had just come out to the public after years of Newt being his “best friend and mentor”, the media had taken to them in such a kind way, it was surprising really. Of course there had been hate, they’d been prepared for that, but the way most of the media instantly named them the new darlings of the LGBT-community and completely and utterly supported them had been a shock to both of them, albeit a nice one.

 

Things had been amazing. Newt had been able to hold Thomas’ hand in public, he’d been recognized as something more than just Thomas’ friend. Of course there’d been speculations before but people actually _knowing_ that he was Thomas’ and Thomas was his felt absolutely bloody amazing.

 

Thomas was happy and Newt was happy with him, for him. Thomas had been on his way to stardom, and while his boyfriend ran like his life depended on it, working so hard, Newt slowly typed out almost the entirety of his book. He’d only had a couple of chapters left when it happened.

 

When he closed his eyes, he could still see the lights coming towards them. The person who’d crashed into them had been dead straight away. He’d been an anti-LGBT activist and even though no one knew if it was an accident or not, the media had branded him innocent because that was the way the world worked. One day you were the apple of their eye, the next they’d defend the person who’d tried to kill you just because he was a white, heterosexual man. That didn’t really matter, though. What mattered was Thomas and how everything had been ripped from them in a matter of seconds.

 

The book didn’t get any further, of course, because for the five months Thomas was in a coma, Newt could do nothing but stay by Thomas’ side, clutch his hand and hope and pray that he would wake up. Pray that the person who woke up was at least partly the same person who fell in this hellish “sleep”.

 

The first two weeks was in relative silence. Then the journalists started calling. Some even managed to get in, and Newt wanted to murder every single one of them. He wanted to grab whatever blunt object he could find and beat them to death. The blood-suckers didn’t give a damn about Thomas, and they sure as hell didn’t give a lovin’ damn about Newt. They cared about the scandal, about the sob-story, and yet they came here with their sympathetic eyes that only halfway managed to cover up the hunger in them, with their pens scratching on paper until it felt like they were scratching in the inside of Newt’s head, and he was absolutely sure he’d go mental. He’d end up murdering one of them, or one of the staff of the expensive, fancy hospital that apparently wasn’t expensive or fancy enough to actually give them any privacy.

 

He hardly remembered ever being this angry before, and somehow it was a relief, because when he wasn’t angry, all he was was lost. He felt like his world had been ripped from him, like he was floating in thin air and that whatever held him might crack at any second. It took him about two months to realize what was holding him was hope and that it was wearing thinner and thinner for every second.

 

“Are you sure?”

 

It was a question he’d gotten used to. They weren’t going to turn off the machines. He couldn’t have that. He couldn’t lose Thomas now. He couldn’t let go of him yet. He’d never let go of him. This way Thomas wasn’t in pain and maybe, just maybe, Newt might get him back. Of course it hurt seeing the person he loved wearing away. Thomas got food through a tube, which kept him going, but the way toned muscles and tan skin slowly faded away, leaving a pale, skinny, sunken version of the sunny disposition Newt had fallen so hopelessly in love with. “I’m sure. Stop asking me this. You’re not killing him. I’m not letting you do that.”

 

The doctor hesitated for a second but ended up nodding, awkwardly patting Newt’s shoulder and leaving without another word. How he kept thinking this was something Newt would discuss was a wonder and a marvel really. He was asked at least once a week if he was sure, and he knew that they were trying to keep an eye on him, that they were worried about the way his own body had gotten even thinner, that there were bags under his eyes and that they were always puffy, but what did they expect? The love of his life was being kept alive by a machine, and Newt was helpless to do anything to change that. So he stayed here. His friends had tried getting him to get out of here for just a couple of hours a day but they hardly ever succeeded. He needed to be here if Thomas woke up. So he sat here, and he’d read more books in the past two months than he had in his entire life because he’d heard somewhere that hearing his voice might help Thomas, and he didn’t remember a single word he’d read, but he had to keep going.

 

When the door finally closed behind the doctor he gave into it. His chest felt like it was going to cave in, and even if he couldn’t cry a single tear, he felt the sobs wreck through his entire body. “Please, Tommy. Please. You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you. They keep telling me to turn off the machines, the press, I don’t know what to do. I need you to wake up. Please. You’re all I have, I don’t- Please.”

 

And he knew that Thomas wouldn’t. Not yet. He’d made this exact speech more times than he could possibly count. He’d begged and threatened, cried and screamed for Thomas to wake up with no response at all. He knew with himself that he would keep begging, keep calling until Thomas finally came back. He knew that it might seem hopeless, he knew that the hope he was clinging onto was wearing thinner and thinner, but that didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to let go of it, not now, not ever. “Please Tommy. I love you.”


	54. "Hey, I'm with you, okay? Always."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas has woken up from his coma but he's still facing a lot of challenges, including how his behavior affects his boyfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [to-kill-a-moshing-bird](http://to-kill-a-moshing-bird.tumblr.com) of Tumblr on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet)  
> 2\. Okay this gets better sort of a happy ending still I'm so sorry omfg.

No one had seen it coming – but then again, people seldom did with things like these. One days you were on your way to the stars, on top of the world, sprinting towards a future so bright that sometimes the lights were almost blinding. It had been one hell of a journey, which was probably why the entire world seemed to collectively hold its breath in suspense when Thomas Green, expected to be the next Olympian Gold Medalist, went into a coma for five months after a horrible carcrash that, somewhat ironically – left his boyfriend with only a slightly limp on the outside and a world of pain on the inside.

 

Thomas Green had just come out to the press – shockingly well-received despite the idle gossip, his career had been about to take off, he’d been happy. And then it had all been ripped away from him.

 

Now, 7 months later, he was here, figuratively strapped to a bed with no improvement in sight. He still had Newt and that was the only thing that kept him going even if sometimes it felt like that wasn’t even enough. Newt had waited for him for five months, knowing full well that Thomas wouldn’t wake up the same as he’d been before. Then the Englishman had spent two months by his side as Thomas grew stronger at a pace so tremendously slow that it had almost managed to rid the brunet of all hope.   
  
Newt had plenty for both of them, though. The blond held on to a stubborn last bit of hope that Thomas might get back to normal at some point, seeing as the doctors had told him from the very beginning that Thomas would probably never walk again.

 

“Sometimes I want to die,” Thomas muttered, eyes trained on his legs that had yet again given out. He wanted to cry but he wasn’t about to when Newt was here, looking at him like he’d done well today. When he finally looked up, Newt’s eyes were glistening and Thomas instantly felt the regret seep into every ounce of his body. “Newt, I didn’t mean that. Not the way I said it at least. I’m sorry, I just don’t understand why this had to happen to me.”

 

Newt closed his eyes, trying to blink the tears away. “I know. I understand. But you’ve made so much progress, you couldn’t do this a month ago, not even two weeks ago,” he tried, his voice almost desperate.

 

Thomas just shook his head. Newt made it sound like he’d come so far, and yet he could still only take 30 steps in a row on a good day.

 

“Tommy, they said that your chances of walking again were close to non-existent, but here you are. Walking, and I know you get tired and it’s hard, but you’re doing it. You’re doing what no one thought you’d be able to do. I believe in you. You’ll be just fine again. I bloody swear that to you, Thomas. We’ll get through this.”

 

Thomas turned his head, knowing that this surge of bitter resentment towards his boyfriend was unfair, but he couldn’t stop it. Newt had no idea what this was like. He’d never dreamed of winning a gold medal, he’d never thought he’d make a career in sports only to have it taken from him, and still Newt was the one that had gotten away from all of this with a mere limp while Thomas had been in a coma, unable to walk for two months, and even now he was struggling to find the strength to just _walk_. He would probably never run again.

 

He felt horrible for being jealous of Newt, and of course he would never dream of changing places with Newt even if he could, but he really couldn’t help the dark thoughts that kept trying to consume him these days.

 

“I don’t want to be fine. I want to be brilliant. I want to be the way I was. I’m nothing if I’m not a runner. I have nothing.”

 

Another wounded look.

Thomas hated how he seemed to tend to draw these from Newt those days. “You’re not nothing. You don’t have to run to be brilliant. And you’d have me. And Teresa and Minho. And your mother and all the fans that sent you get well letters. And the kids who work their asses off to do the impossible because you inspired them with that interview you gave. That’s not nothing.”

 

Thomas squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. Newt was kind enough to ignore the way he turned his head slightly to wipe his hand at the corner of his eye and Thomas loved him for that. “I’m scared,” he whispered, adjusting his grip on Newt’s hand and slowly moving to stand up.

 

“I know, Tommy. I know.” Newt answered, his grip tightening on Thomas’ hand, “Hey, I’m here with you, okay? Always. Now 35 steps for me this time. You’ll be running again before you know it.”


	55. "No one needs to know."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt are at a party. Thomas wants some alone time - Newt is a bit worried someone might walk in on them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Someone prompted me this on [the usual challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) but I don't know who because it somehow disappeared from my inbox. Anyways, this is for you whoever you are!  
> 2\. NSFW in case the summary and title didn't say it all.

”Come on, Newt. No one needs to know.”  


Newt took a deep breath, steeling himself against his boyfriend’s cheeky smile and the flirty glance that ”Tommy, are you sure about this? Teresa’s parents could come back from vacation at any second and I mean, the others could come in,” Thomas had already slammed the door behind them, though, and Newt ran his fingers through his hair, feeling a smirk grow on his face because Thomas seemed slightly awkward already. The thing was, Thomas was always a very aggressive flirted but a very shy sexual partner. Not that he wasn’t up for anything, but he tended to draw back a bit as soon as it actually got to that stuff, and he expected Newt to take charge.

 

“They won’t and I made sure Minho’s standing guard. He owes me,” Thomas stated, waggling his eyebrows, and Newt couldn’t help but laugh because he knew Thomas was just kidding. Maybe. He actually wasn’t entirely sure because he couldn’t really picture Minho “standing guard” as they were making out. Anyway, he wasn’t really against the idea and if some of their friends accidentally walked in on them that was their own problem. The only thing that honestly worried him a little bit was if Teresa’s parents decided to come home sooner. They probably wouldn’t, though seeing as they were hardly ever home, and Newt was pretty excited about Thomas having basically been palming him through his jeans the entire way up there. Newt had been blessed the day Thomas figured out how to walk backwards, he was pretty certain of it.

 

He wasn’t that interested in stopping this from proceeding anyway, so he leaned in closer, softly placing a hand on Thomas’ hip and nibbled at his lower lip softly, “Always so cocky, Tommy,”

 

“That’s a nice choice of words there,” the brunet breathed, making Newt laugh softly into the kiss. He loved this. He loved that the two of them were so comfortable with each other that they could hve fun with this. In the beginning it had been extremely awkward. Thomas had been super, _super_ shy and Newt had been afraid that he was going to overstep his boundaries because he wasn’t exactly sure how much experience Thomas actually had and the other bloke – even with his inability to ever shut up – refused to talk about it at all. It had taken them a long time and a lot of awkward conversations to get here, but now it was easy breezy and Newt just couldn’t help but love that dorky smile Thomas flashed him sometimes, the way flirting would turn into shyness at the second Newt started repaying the flirting, the way Thomas would blush ever so slightly from the tips of his ears to the base of his neck, and Newt just loved every single inch of him. He couldn’t help it, he just knew that this was the guy he’d be spending the rest of his life with, and while all of those things ran through his head Thomas had managed to loosen both of their ties, unbutton Newt’s shirt completely and start peppering kisses down his chest. “You better not be thinking about someone else when I’m about to blow you,” he warned and Newt was helpless to do anything but snort and laugh.

  
“You must be insane, I doubt there’s any bloody person in the lovin’ world who looks better than you on their knees,” he stated, laughing when Thomas made a soft, embarrassed noise in the back of his throat, “Don’t be embarrassed, Tommy, it’s just the truth, I don’t see how I’d ever want someone else than you.”  


This proved to be the exact right thing to say, because Thomas made short work of his dress pants and boxershorts, and only seconds later Newt found himself engulfed by warm heat and he raised one hand to his face to muffle the sounds he knew would soon spill, while the other hands’ fingers twirled themselves into chocolatey locks. “Have I ever mentioned,” a small groan punctuated his sentence as Thomas pulled away a bit and made soft kitten licks at the tip of his cock, “That you suck cock like a bloody pro?”

  
The small laugh this drew from Thomas had Newt moaning into the palm of his own hand, at the vibrations running up and down his entire length. The positive part of this was that he was currently leaning against the door, so if someone tried to get in they’d sort of have to push him away from the door opening first. The negative part was that if someone passed by they’d probably be able to hear him and if they decided to come in anyway he’d probably fall on top of Thomas. He decided to push that thought aside for now, though, and enjoy the soft, warm lips of the person he loved around him.


	56. "Kiss me."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt's working the late shift at the coffee shop and a very cute architecture student makes a very sudden demand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. You know the drill. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 

One of the nicer things about working the night shifts at the coffee shop was that Newt had the time to chat with the few customers that were actually here, like the guy at the window table working furiously to finish his architecture portfolio on time. He was still drawing concepts and Newt had already cleaned the place the best he could even if there was an hour until closing time.

The guy didn’t seem to mind the company as long as Newt didn’t stop providing him loads and loads of coffee to keep him going, and Newt had to admit, the guy must have had an iron belly because Newt himself, although he was actually a barista and drank plenty of coffee every day, would have been beyond wired at this point, not to mention coffee nauseous. It was impressive and so was the concepts the bloke was working on in between sips of coffee and pushing the wide-rimmed black hipster glasses further up on the bridge of his nose. They’d been smalltalking and Newt had learned that the bloke’s name was Thomas, he didn’t enjoy reading because he couldn’t sit still for long enough to do it and that he was on his third year of his architectural education among other things.

He’d also learned that Thomas preferred a triple shot mocha latte and that he didn’t take kindly to a barista laughing at his ridiculous coffee order. Oh, and that he was absolutely adorable when he was blushing and pouting. And that he sucked in the end of his pen when he was thinking which drew Newt’s attention to his lips way more than it really should.

He’d tried reading Wuthering Heights, he really had, but his gaze kept wandering to the chocolate brown hair, the determined, amber eyes, to pink lips and the moles dotting Thomas’ skin. He really was extremely handsome, and that was without even considering the biceps that was only vaguely discernible through the dark blue cardigan he was wearing and the broad shoulders it was stretched over.

The positive thing about having stared mindlessly at Thomas for the good of half an hour was that Newt noticed that Thomas was almost out of coffee before the other guy did. “Want me to get you a refill?”

"What?" Thomas looked up, momentarily confused before looking at the cup, "Oh, yes please, that would be nice. I’m almost done, I’ll get out of your hair in a bit so you can close up," he promised, flashing Newt an apologetic smile that was just waved off by the blond.

"Don’t worry about it, Tommy, I’m not closing for another hour," Newt reassured him, glancing at Thomas who was running a hand through dark locks before making his way to make yet another ridiculous beverage for the bloke. He looked adorable with his hair disheveled and his glasses slightly crooked, although he looked extremely tired. Newt had a sudden urge to tuck him in and tell him to get a good night’s sleep, but of course he shook it off because he knew he was being bloody weird.

When he was finally back at the table Thomas was looking out the window frantically, slamming his pen down on the table, “Can you do me a favor?” He glanced Newt’s face nervously and the blond looked in the direction Thomas just had finding nothing out of the ordinary. A few guys walking on the sidewalk, nothing special.

"Uh, yes, certainly, what do you need?"

Thomas’ cheeks seemed to heat up a bit again and he pushed his glasses up on his nose for the thousandth time. “Kiss me.”

Newt blinked. “Excuse me?”

"Kiss me. Please," Thomas tried again, more frantically this time, and Newt was silent for a beat before putting his palm on the table, bending down and pressing his lips to Thomas, vaguely noting that he could taste triple shot mocha latte on his tongue as Thomas’ fingers twisted into his hair and the brunet deepened the kiss. Newt had no idea what was going on, but he wasn’t one to complain when a gorgeous bloke like this one wanted a kiss.

He was actually a bit disappointed when they broke apart but managed to somewhat hide it behind the next smart ass comment. “Are you gonna explain what that was about?”

The brunet sent him a smile that Newt could only describe as awkward. “My ex walked past. I didn’t want it to look like I was just sitting alone in a coffee shop on a Saturday night. Better look like I was kissing the hot barista.”

Newt snorted, half annoyed half amused, “I feel so used,” he claimed, punctuating the sentence with a signature eye roll.

Another goofy smile, “Well, uhm, that and I sort of wanted to kiss you already. Would it be stupid if I invited you for coffee?” He asked, gesturing to the coffee machine at the counter.

"A bit. I’m free on Tuesday in case this is not some weird rebound thing."

Blush.  
Pout.  
Newt’s stern expression quickly melted into a smile. “I’m kidding, Tuesday, please? I’ll be nice.”

He decided that he liked Thomas’ beaming smile more than he liked his pout.


	57. "The paint's supposed to go WHERE?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas has a photography project. Newt agreed to help. Thomas may or may not have left out the fact that he'll need Newt to strip and have a galaxy painted on his back and thighs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. You know the drill. Prompted by an anon on my [tumblr](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) on [this](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) challenge.  
> 2\. This was so fun, omfg. I had the best mental images.

It had been easy enough to rope Newt into participating in his photography session. Thomas had flashed the puppy eyes, begged, told him he’d do anything and Newt had caved after only a minute. Of course, Thomas hadn’t told him exactly what the photoshoot would entail but he definitely planned to. And then he just sort of hoped that Newt wouldn’t back out. He realized that this whole plan was probably a little bit out there, especially because choosing Newt exactly had two main reasons:

1) Thomas had been nursing a small (okay maybe not so small) crush on his friend for several months now and he'd take any chance to spend some time with him.

2) Newt was one of the most visually pleasing people Thomas knew, which meant that he was perfect for this. There’d never really been a question on which of his friends would be his model for this - only about whether or not Newt would agree.

So here he was, nervously pacing until Newt finally walked in the door. Thomas took a deep breath. Now or never.

“Okay, before we start I should explain what’s going to happen. If you don’t want to do this it’s fine. I guess I can still find someone else if I really try, but yeah. Anyway, try not to freak out.”

The small twitch at Newt’s eye told Thomas that this hadn’t exactly been the right thing to say but he’d already started so he’d have to power through.

“Do you know what body paint is?”

Newt arched an eyebrow but nodded, looking slightly suspicious.

“Okay. Uhm, I’d like to take some pictures from behind where you’re painted as the night sky with like a load of stars.”

He closed his eyes and held his breath, hoping that Newt wouldn’t punch him in the face, because he honestly deserved it a little bit for not preparing Newt what they were actually doing until now.

Newt didn’t punch him, but the incredulous tone he answered with told Thomas that it really wasn’t a long stretch. “The paint’s supposed to go  _where_?”

Finally opening his eyes, Thomas was met by an arched brow but also a bit of amusement. Okay. This could definitely be worse. If Newt was laughing at least he wasn’t angry. “On your back and your legs and your... uh.”

Signature eye roll. “On my bum I suppose?”

Thomas nodded mutely. “Yes. On your... uh. Bum.”

Newt sighed deeply and Thomas felt his cheeks color. “Fine. You’re putting it on, right?”

How Thomas hadn’t exactly thought of this part was actually a bit embarrassing, but he ended up nodding and swallowing hard. “Yes. That would be me.”

Another sigh. “Let’s get on with it then.”

Thomas blinked. “Wait what? You’re gonna do it?” He actually couldn’t believe his luck. Even though he’d said he could find someone else if Newt didn’t want to do it, he honestly doubted that he could at such short notice and he’d only rented the studio for today. Besides, no one would actually be as perfect for this as Newt. Newt answered by shooting him another incredulous glance and starting to undress, apparently unaffected by the fact that in only a minute he’d be stark naked in front of one of his oldest friends. Thomas could already feel himself getting flustered and it certainly didn’t help when Newt unceremoniously dropped his boxer briefs and crossed his arms over his chest. Thomas had to mentally stop himself from licking his lips at the sight because that was just plain creepy.  “Do... uh, do you want a glass of water?”

Newt’s eye roll was answer enough, and Thomas decided to stop working and start painting the universe on the back of the guy that he was pretty sure he loved and try to do it without painting the inside of his boxers white.

The first part of the painting process went alright. Covering Newt with blacks and blues and twirling the paint around to create a small galaxy twisting around defined back-muscles and strong thighs was the easy part, and Thomas almost managed not to let his hands linger.

“You alright back there, Tommy?” Newt asked, and Thomas shook himself out of the trance he’d managed to get himself into while readying the white paint. Newt was way too beautiful for his own good, and Thomas honestly wasn’t sure how he was going to manage to look him in the eye. Fortunately Newt couldn’t turn around quite yet, which meant that Thomas had some minutes yet to get control over the raging boner that was stretching the fabric of his poor pants tight.

“Yeah,” he cleared his throat, moving to stand behind Newt, “I’m fine, I’m going to just sprinkle a lot of whites on your skin now so it looks like stars, okay? If it doesn’t work well enough I’ll use a pencil but it should be fine like this, makes it look better.”

Newt’s small chuckle went straight to Thomas’ dick, but he held his tongue and got to work, “Sprinkle some white on my skin. That’s a nice choice of words as I’m standing here naked. You sure this isn’t some strange fetish thing?”

Thomas almost choked on his own tongue, “What? No! No it’s not, don’t be weird! Now stand still so I can finish.”

Newt’s muttered joke of “selfish” went by ignored and Thomas continued his work, stepping back after another 15 minutes to take a look at his masterpiece. “Wow,” he breathed, letting his eyes trail over broad shoulders, a long, strong back and down to firm thighs. For just a couple of minutes the excitement of being with a very naked Newt faded and left was only the excitement over how great his photos would be.

“Okay. Okay I need you over here, I’ll make sure the lights are alright and then we’ll get to it. We need to work fast, the lights get hot and I don’t want you to sweat off the paint,” the brunet muttered, frantically, adjusting everything in his immediate vicinity (except what actually needed adjusting because that would just be awkward with Newt watching him), “Okay turn your back to the camera and look over your shoulder. A little higher with your chin. Can you run your fingers through my hair? Uhm, sorry, your hair?”

Newt’s arched eyebrow and small smirk actually made the picture even better, although Thomas’ cheeks felt like they’d been set on fire.

Two hours later Thomas had more pictures than he thought would be healthy to look through, and the paint had started running. “Okay, I think we’re done.”

Newt nodded, running his fingers through his hair again and smiling at Thomas, “Great. So are you going to help me wash this off or not?”

Thomas blinked, “Uh, what?”

“I might even be able to help you out with that,”

Thomas hadn’t really thought his blush could be any more pronounced but it was probably a good sign, meaning that the bulge in his jeans didn’t take possession of every drop of blood in his entire body. “Yeah,” he breathed, “That would be nice.”

And if he knocked over one of the big white screens on his way following Newt’s throaty laughter, none of them really noticed, being way too caught up with each other to bother with such menial details.


	58. "It's not what it looks like."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt work at Frypan's restaurant. Newt has trouble staying away from the new kid. Actually he only managed for two days before they hook up and the two of them are caught redhanded by a very displeased cook. It's exactly what it looks like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by the wonderful [newtmas-xoxo](http://newtmas-xoxo.tumblr.com/) on the same challenge as usual!  
> 2\. Mentions of NSFW.

“It’s… It’s not what it looks like, Fry, I can explain,” Newt stated nervously, waving his hands in a desperate try to get Frypan to understand a situation that was basically self-explanatory. It was exactly what it looked like. Maybe it even looked better than it actually was.

Frypan didn’t seem to buy it either if his crossed arms and slightly disgusted look was anything to judge by. “You could at least wait until you were home. He’s hardly been working here for two days, Newt, that’s nasty. Get to know a guy before you start eating out his ass.”

Newt wasn’t quite certain if he or Thomas was the most embarrassed by that statement but the cook was right. And had obviously figured out that this was exactly what it looked like. “I… uh. Sorry.”

The cook rolled his eyes and turned the corners of his mouth downwards in a displeased frown, “At least it wasn’t in the actual kitchen,” he muttered, shuddering at the thought, and pointed at the two of them, “You work for free for the next week to make up for this. Newt, you have toilet duty, Thomas you have old lady duty. Whenever an old lady is in here, that’s your job. Teach you to offer your ass up to just any stupid Englishman who checks it out. Be happy I don’t tell your mama this.”

Newt wasn’t entirely certain which one of them was the palest, probably him, seeing as Thomas’ face heated up at the last comment. Newt felt a little bad for the guy if he was honest, the old ladies pinching your butt definitely wasn’t the kind of action a guy wanted. And talking about action, he quickly pulled Thomas’ jeans up for him and helped him to stand. Thomas tucked himself in and sent Frypan another apologetic smile before the cook snorted and walked off. Poor guy. He was probably scarred for life.

“Uh. So. That was awkward,” Thomas stated, making Newt groan with frustration.

“I’d say. I’m guessing Fry’s reevaluating that raise he’s been considering giving me,” he snorted, running his fingers through blond locks. Thomas smiled at him softly and Newt could basically smell the insecurity off of him. “That wasn’t your fault, don’t be nervous. It’s fine, Fry’s a good guy. He won’t tell on us. Probably just glare at us for a while,” 

That didn’t exactly seem to help Thomas’ awkwardness, though, which drew a soft laugh from Newt in a try to ease the tension. “Seriously, Tommy, don’t worry about it. We got caught up in stuff, we’re adults, yeah? No harm done.”

The brunet wrinkled his nose and Newt had to admit that it was adorable. “I’m sorry for getting you in trouble,”

Another soft laughter and Newt shook his head, moving closer and leaning in to place a soft kiss on Thomas’ lips, “I’d say that was my own fault. Should’ve invited you out like a proper gentleman I s’pose,” he mused, pressing his hips towards Thomas’, and he knew that it wasn’t entirely fair because he had absolutely no intentions of continuing this after the awkward reveal. Frypan would probably send Gally to check on them soon if they didn’t make it out of here anyway.

The soft whimper that was drawn from Thomas’ lips cemented Newt’s decision to invite him out but right now he was pretty bloody pre-occupied kissing the other guy silly. “Yes, you really should have,” Thomas managed.

Newt noticed that the brunet’s blush slowly had subsided a bit when he drew back his face to look at him. Shame. “Well, I hope it’s not too late, then?”

Thomas shook his head, shooting Newt that huge smile that had prompted him to pull the other guy into the inventory room in the first place. “Definitely not too late, I mean, I’ll be pretty disappointed if we don’t get to finish this whole thing.”

Newt felt a smile grow on his face. He didn’t know Thomas very well but he had a feeling he would and that definitely wasn’t the worst prospect for the future. 


	59. "So I found a waterfall..."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt are on their first vacation together. The two first days have been brilliant - the third day is a bit of a challenge for Newt what with his very hyperactive boyfriend wanting to go hiking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [thegamesis-idjit](http://thegameis-idjit.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on tumblr!  
> 2\. Just pretend that there are no inconsistencies in this at all because I know that there's no such thing as jungles with no dangerous animals what-so-ever but I don't care. Roll with it.

Their friends had made a huge deal of this, of course, because all their friends were jerks. Well-meaning jerks, but still jerks. Their first vacation together as a couple. It had been mildly terrifying to think of all the things that could go wrong. The first two days had gone perfectly well, though, and Newt found that he was enjoying himself even if Thailand hadn’t been his first choice.

Being English, enjoying more tempered climates was sort of his thing. They’d spent most of the time in the pool, though, so up until now it had been fine.

Up until the day where Thomas had decided that he wanted to go on a hike. Because hiking was definitely not on Newt’s list of things to do in 40 degrees celcius. Here he was, though, because he was a softie and a pushover and his boyfriend had huge amber eyes and a puppy dog look modeled and worked on until it reached absolute perfection.

Thomas did look good in hiking clothes, Newt had to admit that, while he himself was probably sweaty, dirty and looking grumpy. Which Thomas had confirmed by calling him grumpy pants several times until Newt finally gave out and thumped down on the nearest chair. They were in a bloody park, how could they have possibly gotten lost?

Okay so maybe it wasn’t a park per se but it was a small part of the jungle that had been secured, meaning that no wild animals would find them and eat them. That in itself comforted Newt a bit, but it didn’t change that Thomas’ bounding around hyperactively and teasing him about being grumpy was one of the most annoying things he could imagine.

Which had lead him to his current pose on a stone with his arms crossed over his chest and a frown etched deeply into his features. “I,” he started, taking a deep breath to calm himself down, “Am not bloody grumpy. I’m fine, it’s just lovin’ hot out here, you’re being a bleedin’ idiot and I’m tired of being called  _a bloody_   _grump_  all the time! Is that so hard to understand? How do you even have the energy to keep trudging around like that? One would think you ran on batteries.”

“I called you grumpypants, actually,” Thomas stated, dodging the small pebble Newt chugged at him, smiling sheepishly, “Okay okay, I get it, you want a break. I’ll go explore for a bit, you can sit here and try not to set the entire jungle on fire with that glare of yours.”

Newt clenched his teeth and groaned as Thomas, once again, bounded off to only god knew where and left him alone. He sighed (for the millionth time that day although they hadn’t even hit noon yet) and ran his fingers through his hair before grabbing after his water bottle. This was the worst idea Thomas had ever had, and Newt would need a lot of backrubs and blowjobs to get over this horrible, horrible day, he was certain of it. 

“Newt!”

He looked up, blinking and standing immediately. Just because the people at the hotel said this place was safe from poisonous snakes and wild animals they weren’t necessarily right, and worry rose in his throat like bile… until he saw his boyfriend’s huge, dorky smile when Thomas entered the small glade Newt had taken residence in for now. “What? You freaked me out, don’t yell like that unless it’s something-”

“So I found a waterfall!” Thomas interrupted him, and he looked way too happy for Newt to keep it up, so he just sighed heavily and stood up, motioning for Thomas to show him where. “Hey, grumpypants, if you could stop frowning for a while you might use some of your energy to remember what waterfalls can be used for. You know, like cooling down,” Thomas called over his shoulder, smirking when Newt stuck out his tongue at him.

“Do not. Call me-” Thomas zipped in close and pressed a kiss to his lips so soft and loving Newt actually felt his shoulders fall into a more relaxed pose. He’d have to practice his willpower if they were going to keep dating, this was getting embarrassing.

When Thomas broke the kiss, he was beaming once again and Newt cocked an eyebrow, trying for the life of him to remain at least slightly stoic. “We’re here. Strip.” That definitely broke the try to be stoic. He could feel his face stretching into slightly shocked disbelief.

“Excuse me?”

Thomas rolled his eyes, what with his turn to be exasperated finally having come. “Take off your shorts, put on your bathing shorts and let’s shower under a waterfall.”

If Newt almost stumbled in his try to change clothes and follow Thomas (who apparently had developed some kind of super speed from frolicking in the jungle), nearly slipping when his now bare feet hit wet rocks. Fortunately Thomas was there to catch him, making sure that he didn’t fall only to promptly tangle his fingers in Newt’s hair, which was rapidly growing wetter. Even if it wasn’t entirely discernible from the sound alone, the way Newt’s arms tightened around Thomas’ waist made it obvious that the sigh he breathed against his boyfriend’s lips was from the kiss and not from the coolness of the water washing half a day’s worth of sweat and annoyance off his skin.


	60. "Don't you ever do that again."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt is really ticklish. Apparently Thomas is too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [homo-in-disguise](http://homo-in-disguise.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet)!

It had taken Newt quite a while to figure out that Thomas was ticklish.  _Thomas_ , on the other hand, had found out about  _Newt’s_  ticklishness about three minutes after they’d kissed each other for the first time and taken advantage of it whenever he could ever since.

This meant two things:

1\. Lots of tickles. Which essentially meant lots of touching and random spontaneous making out because you couldn’t tickle without touching and apparently sticking your hand in Thomas’ pants was the easiest way to get him to stop whatever he was doing. Not that surprising, really.

2\. Newt had never gotten around to figuring out that Thomas was ticklish because Thomas would always tickle him first which meant that Newt was always absolutely exhausted when Thomas was done with him and trying to start another tickle-fight wasn’t really on the menu.

That meant that Newt had to get sneaky about it. He hadn’t planned this per se, it had sort of struck him when he noticed Thomas fiddling around in their bedroom, rearranging stuff as he was cleaning. He’d been waiting for a call from Alby the entire day but decided that now it could wait.

As stealthily as he possibly could, Newt put down his phone and started sneaking up on his (adorkable - there was no other word for it) boyfriend who was vacuuming and singing along to what Newt assumed was Taylor Swift (it was hard to tell, Thomas was a lot of things, but he definitely couldn’t sing)  _loudly_. Which of course sort of made stealth unnecessary, but Newt was in this for the whole experience, so he snuck up on Thomas as silently as he possibly could - and grabbed his chance. That and his boyfriend’s sides, that was.

Which caused Thomas to make an undignified exclamation that none of them would ever be able to either explain nor reproduce to Thomas’ great joy.

For right now, though, Newt was the joyful one, running his fingers up and down Thomas’ sides until the brunet dropped the vacuum cleaner and started squealing. At some point along the way Thomas’ headphones was lost to the carpet together with his phone, and Newt had never been more delighted with figuring something out about his boyfriend.

“Please!” The gasp was probably meant to speak to his conscience, to make him feel bad for the boyfriend he was mercilessly torturing at the moment, but all the purpose it served was reminding Newt of all the times Thomas had tickled him until he couldn’t breathe and until his abs and cheeks were hurting, and he did the only thing he could do - he tackled Thomas to their bed.

“What’s that, Tommy? Not fun to be the one being tickled, is it?” another squeal of laughter followed the question as Newt doubled his efforts, managing to put a leg on either side of Thomas and hold him down like that, tickling on and on like his life depended on it (which it might actually do, seeing as Thomas would surely take his revenge the second he got free).

Another gasp and Thomas bucked his hips in a desperate attempt to get Newt off, “No! No it’s not, I’m so-” another gasp, “I’m sorry!” He laughed, writhing and bucking the best he possibly could, until Newt caught his wrists and stopped tickling.

He couldn’t help himself. Newt was a softie like this but Thomas’ messy hair and red cheeks made the blond want to kiss him, and no amount of revenge was better than a kiss from his gorgeous boyfriend. “Tell you what, Tommy, you are one bloody cute shank when you’re being tickled,” he stated, leaning down and pressing his lips against Thomas’, almost starting to laugh again at the way Thomas’ heavy breathing graced his lips as his boyfriend kissed back eagerly, probably hoping to distract Newt from getting the idea of tickling him again. When Newt finally broke the kiss, Thomas glanced up at him as if coming out of a trance.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” he breathed, and Newt couldn’t help a smile from forming as he leaned down for another kiss.

“Can’t promise ya that, Tommy.”


	61. "Wanna dance?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teresa and Chuck dragged Thomas to prom. He totally didn't want to go. And he doesn't dream of a perfect prom where the school's basketball star Newt notices him. Nope. He doesn't. Not at all. Definitely not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [ on ](http://underwoolf.tumblr.com/)[this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet).  
> 2\. This is so fluffy I love this.

Thomas had never really been the popular kid, and that was fine by him. He didn’t receive a lot of attention apart from a few muted whispers about that gay hipster kid, and that was just the way he wanted things. He wasn’t one to want a lot of attention. He preferred to fly under the radar although it was sort of hard when you were as clumsy and loud as he was.

He knew that some people found him obnoxious but that had never really bothered him. He asked questions, he was a curious soul, and if people didn’t wanna talk to him they could just walk away.

If they were okay with Thomas probably following them around.

He’d been here for half a year by now, though, so he’d figured out how stuff worked. He’d found a couple of friends and those were - of course - the ones who’d dragged him along. Teresa, claiming that he needed to make more friends because she couldn’t eat pizza with him every night of every weekend, and Chuck because he didn’t want to go alone and apart from admiring Teresa to death, the kid was also a little scared of her.

So here he was, at a small table with his two best friends and it was cool, it was fine. It wasn’t like a  _dream prom_  but who actually honestly dreamed of a perfect prom haha not Thomas. Nope definitely not. “Shouldn’t someone have asked you to dance?” he asked, turning to Teresa who just stared him down. 

“Someone’s in a mood,” she pointed out, raising her eyebrows and throwing her head towards a group of people at the end of the room, “Mad that blondie hasn’t swept you off your feet yet?”

Thomas felt his face color. He’d asked for that one, he knew that. “No! I don’t care, haha, why should I care, I mean, he probably has other stuff to do, like dancing with that Brenda girl, not that I care,” he muttered, voice trailing off at the end, when he saw how Brenda was laughing at something Newt had said. Shit. He’d really, really hoped that Newt was queer, although he knew that even if he had been, Thomas wasn’t sure he’d have done anything about it. Their school wasn’t an overly homophobic place but being a queer kid in high school was probably never fun to anyone really. Especially not if you were a slightly awkward new kid having a major crush on one of the best basketball players the school had. “Fine, whatever, can we just dance?” he asked, snorting when Teresa just made a disgusted face.

“With you? I don’t think so, I like my feet intact. Come on, Chuckie, we’ll go dance.”

Chuck looked like he was about ready to faint from pure unadulterated fear but he got to his feet, apparently having decided to himself that dancing with Teresa would give him a bigger chance of survival than not dancing with Teresa.

Thomas just glared after them and took a sip from his coke. Teresa had been prescient enough to bring a little bit of booze that she’d hid somewhere Thomas really didn’t want to know about because the tight, black dress she was wearing really didn’t leave much to the imagination. If they hadn’t been friends for so long, Thomas could’ve probably seen himself falling for Teresa. She felt like a sister to him, though, so even if she was the one who’d taught him kissing (a fact that she’d never let him live down) they’d never actually moved beyond those awkward make-out sessions in Thomas’ room when his mother was at work. She was attractive enough, and it wasn’t like Thomas didn’t like girls at all. He’d just been preoccupied with a certain blond the past half year.

He glanced up to check where Newt was, horror spreading in his chest at the sight that met him.

Teresa was now dancing ( _grinding_ ) with Brenda while Chuck was shimmying up against Newt. No doubt something Teresa had made him do, and Thomas felt slightly nauseous at the thought of what the two of them had planned.

Whatever it was seemed to have worked, because Newt looked around awkwardly while backing away from Chuck, until his gaze caught Thomas and he started making his way over. Thomas immediately stood up, almost knocking his chair over and stumbling in his try to grab it before it fell, all intent of running off before Newt could-

“Well hello there. Green, isn’t it?”

Thomas blinked, straightening slowly as he tried to find his voice. He grabbed after his cup but only found thin air, meaning that he didn’t even have a couple of moments to get himself together while he drank. “Uh. Yes. Thomas. Thomas Green. That’s me. I’m Thomas.”

_‘Okay slow down there, tiger, I think he fucking got it the first time.’_

The soft, casual laughter that answered his laughing made Thomas feel equally awkward and warm and fussy inside. “Nice to officially meet you, Thomas. I’m Newt,”

“I know.”

_‘God damn it Green.’_

“Oh? You do, do you?” Newt asked, both eyebrows rising just a bit and an amused smile playing on his lips, “Then I guess you know why I’m here?”

Thomas could have slapped himself, “Everyone here knows who you are, Newt. Famous Newt Isaacs, co-captain of the basketball team, arguably one of the smartest guys at school,” he started, pausing when Newt asked if Thomas knew why he was there. “Uh, to tell me to get a hold of my weird friends?”

“Arguably? One of the smartest guys at school? You wound me,” the blond laughed, and Thomas desperately wanted to make him laugh over and over and over forever. “No. That’s not why, actually. Want another guess?”

Thomas shrugged helplessly. He didn’t have the brain capacity to enjoy actually talking to Newt, keeping himself from staring mindlessly at his face, marvel at why Newt was talking to him of all people, and make guesses on how he had gotten so lucky at the same time.

“I came here to ask you something,” Newt stated, and Thomas made a face.

“Teresa has the booze.”

The blond looked surprised for a second and Thomas seized the chance to get some more of the aforementioned booze into his system. How Teresa had gotten a hold of it, he didn’t know and he didn’t want to. Of course Newt had only come over here to get the booze.

“That’s not it either,” he said, letting his eyes travel over Thomas’ face for just a second before reaching out his hand. “Wanna dance?”

Thomas almost died right then and there, and he probably would have if Newt hadn’t taken him by the hand, softly pulled him onto the dance floor and put his hands on Thomas’ hips, staring to sway softly to the music.

“Yes.”

That laughter again. “Well, we’re already dancing, Tommy.”

A sheepish smile crept onto Thomas’ lips as he realized that it was true. He was dancing with Newt Isaacs at his senior prom. “Oh. Right.”


	62. "Well this is awkward..."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt are really enjoying their alone time. Thomas will soon grow to regret that he gave his mother a spare key.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [ robin-nohood](http://robin-nohood.tumblr.com/) on[this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet).  
> 2\. If you're easily embarrassed I do NOT recommend this. Don't read it if you get second hand embarrassment, seriously. I'm not playing.  
> 3\. Contains rimming so if you're not down with that you should probz not read either.

Dating Newt was heaven.

Dating Newt meant love and sunshine and an abundance of hot, intense, steamy sex.

It meant doing it against the walls of every single room in their shared flat, it meant making love on the bedroom floor, on Newt’s desk and everywhere they possibly could.

It meant slow, lingering kisses in the sunshine in various parks around the city, it meant soft lips on his and warm, gentle hands cupping his face.

It meant whispered secrets in the dark and lingering fingertips at the back of his neck as he was falling asleep, wrapped in soft blankets, darkness and the smell of the person he loved.

Right in this instant, it meant scorching hot lips traveling down the length of his neck and fingers fluttering over the taut muscles of his abdomen. Thomas’ nerve-ends felt like they’d been lit on fire, Newt having decided to take his sweet time taking his Tommy apart. Fingers traveled further south as velvet lips teased at his clavicle.

This had gone on for about an hour already, and while Thomas was enjoying himself immensely, he was also steadily growing more and more desperate. “Newt, please,” he breathed, hips bucking as delicate fingertips spread his ass apart to make way for lips peppering tiny kisses everywhere from his dick to his balls and down between his cheeks. He was pretty sure he was going to die here, and wouldn’t that be a way to go?

“You okay up there, Tommy?” Newt asked, his voice slightly hoarse.

Thomas nodded, groaning in frustration as his fingers tightened in the sheets. “I’m fine! Get on with it!” He forced out between gritted teeth, spreading his legs wider.

“Pardon me for trying to be a little romantic here,” Newt snorted, but Thomas could hear laughter in his voice, lacing through the blame Newt had tried going for, “Turn over, then.”

Thomas was pretty certain he’d never moved so fast in his entire life - then again, he’d never been motivated like this. Before he even knew it he was on his knees and underarms, presenting his ass to Newt in a matter of mere seconds, completely and utterly unashamed at how desperate he probably looked. “Fuck me.”

The demand unfortunately only prompted a laugh from Newt - but his boyfriend nibbled softly at the skin on Thomas’ inner thigh, and that convinced him to not call Newt out on laughing at him at a time like this. “Not quite yet, Tommy. I have something else planned,” and with that Newt spread his cheeks, and Thomas almost died when soft, wet kisses rained over his lower back and all the way down between his cheeks.

“Newt?” he muttered, halfway a warning, halfway in wonder, because Newt wasn’t really going to…? He blinked, slightly surprised when he realized that yes, Newt was going to do just that and if his moan was absolutely and utterly broken, that was alright by him, because he really couldn’t be expected to react any other way at the sensations that Newt was hailing down over him at this very moment.

“Thomas, I brought take-out, is Newt he-”

And with that Thomas’ perfect moment was crushed in a matter of mere seconds. The entire world froze and narrowed down, time standing still in this single most embarrassing, horrible moment of his entire life. Fortunately for him, his face was squashed into a pillow. Fortunately for Newt, his face was pressed as close into Thomas’ ass as humanly possible. Unfortunately for both of them, his mother had decided to walk in at this exact moment, and Thomas was busy regretting the choice to give her an extra set of keys when time started moving again and Newt, surprisingly calm, removed his face and his hands from Thomas.

“Mrs. Green,” he said, voice surprisingly calm, and Thomas felt the blankets being thrown over him.

The unmistakable sound of his mother’s voice laced with nervous laughter hit Thomas’ ears, and he almost considered trying to choke himself on the pillow. “Well this is awkward…”

“You don’t say,” Newt laughed, and Thomas once again considered if there was an easy way to die here. Somehow, though, Newt managed to lead his mother out of the room and Thomas quickly got up and dressed. The positive part of this is that his mother’s sudden entrance had effectively killed his boner, so he wouldn’t have to deal with that before going out there.

When he came out, dressed and about as red as a tomato in his entire face, his mother was sitting in the couch and Newt was already putting silverware he’d inherited from his late grandmother on the table while he was chitchatting with Thomas’ mother, who seemed to have forgotten to be uncomfortable. Thomas blinked. Part of him was sort of annoyed that Newt was so relaxed about this - the other part was falling for him even harder.


	63. "I can’t believe you went and got yourself sick!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas really doesn't want to ask Newt to stay home from work to take care of him. Luckily he doesn't have to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by Sydney on here, you wanted a sickfic, here it is! I took the chance to make this my writer's preference part of [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet).

It wasn’t exactly like Thomas enjoyed being sick. He just didn’t have a very good immune system and he wasn’t good at taking care not to  _become_  sick. Being sick had always been hell on him, partly because he was a whiny bastard, partly because his mother had always had to work so much that she couldn’t really stay home with him after he’d gotten older, and Thomas took a lot of babying when he was sick.

That had changed after Newt came into the picture, of course. Newt was good at babying him if you could ignore the many eye rolls and snarky comments on how much of an idiot he was.

Anyway, he had no intentions of his boyfriend finding out that he was sick, knowing that Newt had an important meeting today. Thomas wasn’t about to screw up this deal, which meant that he’d have to deal without Newt. Make himself chicken soup and tea, wrap himself in blankets, comfort himself when he was feeling bad. It sounded like hell but Thomas was a courageous guy, which meant that he was totally going to let Newt go to work instead of being a whiny jerk about it. 

He’d settled this in his mind and he was determined that was the way it was going to be.

Except he couldn’t hold in his sneezing and coughing until Newt was out the door. 

“I can’t believe you went and got yourself sick!” Newt complained, loosening the tie (that looked really good on him, Thomas noted absentmindedly through his haze of snot and fever and pure pain and discomfort) that he’d spent ten minutes binding (one thing Thomas could do that Newt couldn’t) and throwing it over the back of a chair. “I’m calling in to work, I’ll tell them I can’t come today.”

“But Newt,” a sneeze punctuated the sentence, “You have that meeting.”

Thomas knew he sounded absolutely pitiful but there was really nothing he could do about it at all. He was desperate to have Newt stay but he wasn’t willing to ask him to. It was too selfish and Thomas didn’t want Newt to lose the deal over him.

Newt (unsurprisingly) rolled his eyes and shook his head, shrugging out of his blazer and walking straight into the kitchen. “I don’t care, Tommy, I’m not going anywhere when you’re feeling like this,” his boyfriend called, probably putting the kettle on the stove to make Thomas some of his famous tea, before walking into the bedroom again, unbuttoning his cuff on one arm to pull back the sleeve and feel at Thomas’ forehead with his arm, “You’re burning up, don’t be bloody ridiculous, I’m staying.”

And that was that. Thomas hated to admit to himself that it made him extremely happy that he didn’t have to be home alone while being sick. He didn’t enjoy being this big of a baby but maybe he’d just have to admit to himself that he was and get over it.

“Tommy, I’m gonna give you a cup of tea and then I’m gonna run down on the corner and get some soup and some scones, okay? I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Noooooo,”

A sigh. “Tommy,” the bed dipped a bit and Thomas opened his eyes, going for looking as pitiful as he possibly could, although it didn’t seem to work with Newt, “I’m literally only going to be gone for ten minutes, don’t be a baby. You’ll need food later, I’m gonna get you some C-vitamin tablets too, it’ll be good for you.” 

Another soft whine from Thomas made Newt bend down and kiss his forehead. “I’ll be back in a jiff.”

He promised, turning on the TV and patting Thomas on the head before leaving.

Thomas wasn’t entirely displeased with getting to watch Spongebob and drink tea but he sort of wanted Newt to cuddle him more than he wanted food. Maybe later. If he could find a way to be cuddled without accidentally passing whatever he’d caught onto his amazing boyfriend. 

He’d managed to fall asleep when Newt came back, of course, and he only groaned as a response when Newt opened the door and called out for him. A couple of minutes later a warm body slid down behind his and comforting arms slipped around him. “I’m back, Tommy,” Newt muttered softly, obviously not entirely sure if Thomas was awake or not. He felt a soft kiss at the base of his neck and a wet, chilly cloth was wiped over the skin on his forehead and neck, and Thomas rolled over and buried his face at Newt’s neck.

“You’re gonna get sick.”

Newt laughed. “Nah, I never get sick, Tommy. You’re the weakling here. Just go back to sleep.”

And that he did.


	64. “Have I entered an alternate universe or did you really just crack a smile at me?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt really got off on the wrong foot, but when Newt hurts his foot at a soccer game Thomas is there to help, and maybe, just maybe, there's something there that's worth exploring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on my [Tumblr!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) Come say hi!  
> 2\. Thanks for the prompt, love, whoever you are! :) <3

Maybe the reason Thomas and Newt had gotten off on the wrong foot was that Newt had never met Thomas until the evening he saw Thomas punch Newt’s half-brother Gally in the face. 

Maybe it was just that they were extremely different people.

Anyway, it wasn’t really the most fortunate of things that they had so many friends in common. Brenda was Newt’s cousin, and being Thomas’ ex-girlfriend and very close friend, there wasn’t much to do about it. Minho knew Newt too and basically there was nothing Thomas could do to stay away from the guy.

Which had led to quite a bit of scathing comments between the two of them through time. Newt thought Thomas was an egoistic prick who never thought about the consequences of his actions (not completely wrong) and Thomas thought Newt was a sarcastic jerk (also not entirely wrong). It wasn’t a rivalry per se because they didn’t actually compete about anything until Thomas joined a soccer team that was apparently the deadliest of deadly rivals to Newt’s team.

Basically their whole acquaintance had been a row of unfortunate events that had led them to despise each other. Which was of course the reason it was funny to flirt with Newt every now and then. Thomas definitely wasn’t interested in the dick, no, not at all, why would he be? He was just an annoyingly tall guy with a ridiculous accent, that was all. Thomas just flirted with him because it seemed to annoy him. As normal, well-balanced people did. Flirting with people you despised wasn’t as screwed up as Minho made it sound when they talked about it, it really wasn’t. Thomas was sure of it. 

Everything had culminated now, of course, in this last game of the year. Only one team could take home the gold and it was going to be Thomas’ team, no doubt.

“You realize we’re gonna kick your bloody arses, don’t you?” Newt mocked, a part of their pre-game routine by now, “You’re gonna drop the ball - literally - at the very last game, Tommy,” he laughed, and Thomas knew that he was being taunted, that this was a thing they did, but he couldn’t help himself. He saw red.

“That’s funny coming from someone who hasn’t gotten past our defence even once this season,” and if he sounded smug, that was only because he could see Newt’s face heat up at the comment.

“I’ve made a load of great passes, Green, you know that!”

Thomas shrugged, smiled innocently and winked at him. “Well, maybe today’s your big day, Isaacs.”

And with that the game begun.

It wasn’t until Newt was severely tackled by one of Thomas’ teammates they talked again. What with Thomas instantly sprinting to Newt’s side and kneeling down next to him. “Are you alright?” he asked, running his fingers over Newt’s ankle with a small frown.

“I’m  _fine_ , give me a hand and I’ll be playing again in a second.”

Thomas blinked. “I seriously doubt that, what with your ankle being dislocated,” he pointed out, wrinkling his forehead and kneeling next to Newt. “I know you don’t like me,”

At this Newt sent him a sharp look, “And why is that?”

Ignoring him, Thomas proceeded, “But you’ll have to trust me for now. 3, 2,” and with this he made a quick, sharp movement and pulled Newt’s ankle back into place, receiving a hard punch straight in the shoulder for his efforts.

“Bloody fucking hell you meanspirited fucking twat!”

“Are you done?” Thomas asked, standing and pulling Newt to his feet, making sure to support his weight on the bad foot and walking him slowly towards the bench.

Newt snorted, “Guess I’m not gonna score that goal today either.”

Thomas turned his head, a small smile playing at his lips, “That’s what you’re worried about? You made a lot of great passes today. I’ll buy you coffee as a consolation prize.”

An eyeroll met him, but a small smile was playing at the corners of Newt’s lips, “Fine, but I’m getting the most expensive one there is and you’re paying.”

Thomas couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on his face. Newt might not thank him but Thomas sensed that things might get better between the two of them now. “Have I entered an alternate universe or did you just crack a smile at me?”

“Alternate universe. Definitely. Now get your ass back out there, your team needs you.”

Thomas winked, “I didn’t know you’d noticed how fine it looks in those shorts.”

Groan, eyeroll, but the remnants of that smile were still on Newt’s lips.


	65. "I can't believe you talked me into this."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas wants to make a statement so the LGBT students at their school know that they're not alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [this wonderful person](http://5secondsofnewtmas.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on my [Tumblr!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) Come say hi!  
> 

“Tommy, I’m serious, this is the worst idea ever,” Newt signed, putting the last bucket of paint into his car. “We’re going to get expelled for the sake of what? A prank?”

Thomas huffed, leaning in to place a quick peck on his boyfriend’s cheek. “It’s not just a prank, you know that. They’ve made so many bigoted comments by now, it’s not okay. Our school is not about that and we’re not even writing something mean or wrong. We’re just making a statement to the others like us.”

Newt sighed but snaked an arm around his boyfriend’s waist and smiled. “You’re reckless. There are other ways of helping.”

The beaming smile that met him made his insides flutter and he realized that he’d do anything for Thomas if his boyfriend asked.

Thomas was more precious to him than anything else and if he needed to do this in order to make his boyfriend happy he would without a second thought.

“There are other ways, but this shames the dirtbags and tells the other LGBT-students that we support them at the same time. It’s brilliant. It’s the best way of showing that this school isn’t a bigoted shit stain on reality.”

Newt blinked, slightly impressed with Thomas’ choice of words, but he wasn’t about to try to repress the smile that started spreading on his face instantly.

So he let it go, reached out and took Thomas’ hand, spinning the brunet into his arms and squeezing him tight while looking into his eyes. “Promise me one thing.”

Thomas frowned, “That depends-”

“No,” Newt interrupted, his voice firm and serious, “Promise me you’ll do this for me. If someone comes there while we’re doing this, you run. We both do. No getting yourself caught because you wanna finish up or something. Your record isn’t exactly clean and if they throw you out you’re bloody screwed. Promise me.”

Thomas was still frowning, obviously wanting to say no, but fortunately the little shit knew that he needed Newt’s car to pull this off, seeing as he didn’t have one himself. His gaze was wavering and Newt knew when Thomas looked away that he’d almost won.

“Tommy, please.”

That won the brunet over, it seemed, because Thomas met his eyes for a couple of seconds before nodding. “Fine.”

“Say it,” Newt demanded, raising his eyebrows to mark the fact that he wasn’t going to just let this go. “Say that you promise not to try to be a hero.”

Thomas sighed. “Fine. I promise not to try to be a hero. I promise to run away if we’re about to get busted. Happy?”

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Newt muttered, before he felt an excited grin grow onto his face. “Very, now let’s go do some queer-supportive grafitti.”

And off they drove, into the night, Thomas blasting Fall Out Boy through the iPod dock in Newt’s car. Newt barely suppressed the urge to laugh partly because Thomas’ singing voice was somewhere between bad and horrifying partly because he had to admit to himself that he was actually genuinely excited about this project, even if he was still a little bit worried that they’d end up getting caught.

As they pulled up, Newt looked over at his boyfriend, marking the excitement and determination in Thomas’ face. “Hey Tommy?”

Thomas looked over, flashing Newt a short smile, “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

The beaming smile he was awarded with was answer enough. “I love you too.”

Fifteen minutes later they were set up to begin. They’d both made two trips, making sure that they had the colors for an entire rainbow flag and some white paint for the text. Then began the assault on the school bleachers, and Newt had to admit, it was fun. If it hadn’t been too risky, they would have probably ended up in a panting-splashing fight, but fortunately even Thomas was smart enough to not do that, even if he was sometimes a bit too impulsive.

“It looks good.”

“It does.” Newt confirmed, nodding happily when Thomas took his hand. “It’s brilliant really. They won’t be able to remove it or cover it before the match starts, they don’t have that much time from the first people get here until it actually begins.”

Thomas beamed at him again. “Yeah. It’s perfect.”

“You’re perfect.”

The brunet gave small laughter and pulled Newt towards the car. “You’re such a sap.”


	66. "Just once."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt isn't stoked at the prospect of giving Thomas a piggy bag ride, but he's also a major pushover, so as per usual Thomas gets what he wants in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on my [Tumblr!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) Come say hi!  
> 

“Don’t be bloody ridiculous, Tommy! Not a lovin’ chance!”   
  
Thomas’ pout may have been a bit exaggerated but he sensed that it did its job because Newt’s stern glance already seemed to be wavering. “Just once? Please? Pretty please? I’ll do that thing you like tonight.”   
  
Newt huffed. “I’m not  _that_  fond of your lasagna, Tommy.”   
  
“No, not the lasagna, the other thing,” Thomas specified, raising his eyebrows ever so slightly and running his fingertips down Newt’s bicep.

Newt’s eyes widened ever so slightly and he grew silent for a couple of seconds before giving a small. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh,” Thomas smirked, winking at his boyfriend and leaning in to throw an arm around his neck, kissing softly at the corner of his mouth. “So, what do you say?”

Newt sighed, hating that he could literally feel himself giving into such obvious manipulation. “The second you found out how bloody attractive you are to me was the worst thing to ever happen to me,” he claimed, sighing when Thomas moved back his head, running his tongue over a plumb lower lip.

“You’re only saying that because there’s a long time till tonight.”

Newt rolled his eyes but didn’t really fight the urge to smile. Partly because Thomas was right, partly because T Homas was a major dork. His obvious flirting was of that particular brand that Newt loved so much about him.

It was ridiculously charming, really, when paired up with the plumb lips, the amber eyes and the mole-dotted skin. “Fine,” he sighed, getting down on both knees and waiting for Thomas to crawl up. His boyfriend all but danced around him, happiness lighting up his entire face. “The things I do for a good old-”

“Piggy bag ride!” Thomas demanded, effectively interrupting Newt’s slightly bitter oncoming tirade.

Newt once again had to question the sanity of both him and his wonderful boyfriend as Thomas wrapped his legs around the blond’s waist and his arms around his neck. “I love you,” he whispered softly, and the dorky smile that spread on Newt’s face was only partly because Thomas’ breath tickled his ear.

So he stretched his legs and his back, reaching back and giving Thomas’ butt a soft squeeze before planting his hands firmly and flatly on there to help hold the brunet up.

“You dirty bastard,” Thomas laughed, kissing the nape of the blond’s neck softly.

“You bloody like it. Don’t deny it,” Newt laughed, giving Thomas another squeeze before taking a small hesitant step. He wanted to make sure he didn’t drop Thomas.

His boyfriend didn’t seem worried, though, because his laughter was so joyful Newt instantly took another step.

“I wanna pick mirabelle plums from the garden!” Thomas announced.

Newt didn’t manage to suppress the groan that passed over his lips at that comment.

“You want to pick mirabelle plums?”

“Yes!” Thomas confirmed happily, tightening his legs around Newt’s waist.

The blond sighed. “Mirabelle plums, Tommy? Really?  _Really?_  Why?”

But it was Thomas, so of course he was already on his way, moving towards the door and opening without even thinking about it. It was warm and lovely outside, so he didn’t have to put on shoes, which was a good thing because he doubted Thomas would get down now and he couldn’t exactly put on any shoes without Thomas slipping.

Said boyfriend made a soft, happy noise in the back of his throat and squeezed Newt tighter, placing his head between Newt’s shoulder blades in a way that made the blond’s heart feel like it was swelling ever so slightly in his chest. “Because I’ve never been able to reach. I’m not a tall freak like you.”

The eye roll this merited was wasted on Thomas in the first place, of course, seeing as he was still on Newt’s back, but Newt wasn’t about to let it go to waste just like that. “I’m rolling my eyes at you.”

Thomas snorted. “I know, I could feel it in your entire body, it’s a wonder you didn’t collapse under it,” he pointed out, although he didn’t exactly sound torn up about it. “And I’m not short.”

“Didn’t say you were, Tommy,” Newt answered, laughter clear in his voice.

“But you were about to.”

A small shrug. “I might have been.”

The soft slap on the back of his head didn’t really hurt, so Newt just smiled as he started making his way down the stairs, humming happily to himself as Thomas was running careful fingers through his hair.

Maybe, just maybe, he didn’t mind this as much as he said he did, he thought, as he pushed the door to the backyard open and felt the sun on his face. “Y’know, if you really wanted to bloody pick mirabelle plums or whatever you might want to get on my shoulders.”

He could feel Thomas shake his head behind him. “No, this is fine. I like this,” and Thomas tightened his grip ever so slightly again, causing Newt’s heart to jump ever so slightly.

“You won’t be able to reach if you’re gonna hold me so tight, Tommy,” Newt pointed out, moving over under the tree that Thomas had been talking about, looking up as much as he could without inconveniencing Thomas.

“If I let go will you cuddle me all night and then we can be done with this,” Thomas promised, laughing as he reached up, starting to pick berries. Newt let himself fall into deep thought as Thomas kept picking and picking, the sun gracing both of their faces. Life was pretty good.


	67. "Don't you dare throw that snowba- dammit!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas really likes snow fights, so does their two kids. Newt feels a little differently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [i-want-l0uis-t0mlinsons-c4rr0t](http://i-want-l0uis-t0mlinsons-c4rr0t.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on my [Tumblr!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) Come say hi!  
> 

Christmas was a magical time of year in the Green-Isaacs household. Mostly for the three children, of course. Teresa, Chuck, and the adult child, Thomas. Thomas being the Green part of the Green-Isaacs marriage, although Newt sometimes argued that Thomas was too much of a child to really be able to make any adult decisions - let alone getting married.

Christmas was a magical time of year in the Green-Isaacs household. Mostly for the three children, of course. Teresa, Chuck, and the adult child, Thomas. Thomas being the Green part of the Green-Isaacs marriage, although Newt sometimes argued that Thomas was too much of a child to really be able to make any adult decisions - let alone getting married.

Thomas was childish in all the right ways, though. So he might be a little stubborn and impulsive at times, but he was also a loving, positive father who did every single thing he could to make sure their kids got a nice childhood. That centered particularly about Christmas, which was probably a good thing since Newt could be a bit of a Grinch on those.

He hated the snow. He got his fair share of downfall in his Native country, which, unfortunately, had done nothing to get him used to the snow that covered Chicago like a thick, white blanket.

Thus, Newt knew before any of the others even woke that he would be dragged outside for a snowball fight.

As he walked around the kitchen, putting together the dough for some freshly baked bread, he was steeling himself and maybe even practicing looking excited for when the statement about what their day would be spend like would finally fall. 

While the buns were in the oven, he was deliberating whether or not there was a way for him to get away with not going outside without the others. He pondered and pondered, wondering if he could say he was going to clean - but the place was squeaky clean. In the end he gave up on the gloomy thoughts, picked up a book and read for a while.

He didn’t manage many pages before squeals and laughter was heard from upstairs, telling him that their children had taken it upon themselves to wake up his beautiful husband in the most sudden of ways. If Newt knew Thomas at all, though, he bugger had probably woken up the second their children walked into the room. Thomas could sleep from just about anything except when their children were involved. He’d probably been pretending to sleep up until now anyway though.

“Now, monsters,” the familiar voice sounded, and Newt was sort of happy for a second that the sound in their apartment carried so well, “Go down to your dad, I smell homebaked. I’ll be there in a second.”

Small feet padded down the stairs and Newt put away his book and moved to turn off the oven. Perfect timing. "Daddy!“ The squeals of joy when two beautiful kids bounded into the room and threw their arms about each of his legs almost distracted Newt enough to drop the hot baking plate. He quickly put it on the table and kneeled down to give them both a long hug. "Morning you little buggers,” he laughed, kissing each of their curly haired heads before standing up. “Sit, I have nutella, jam and freshly baked bread. Apple or orange juice?”

The choir of “Apple!” was accompanied by the scraping of chairs and the two little scoundrels climbing up on their chairs. Newt felt a pair of strong arms wrap around his chair and Thomas leaned in to place a soft kiss at the base of his neck.

“Morning gorgeous.”

“Morning,” Newt greeted, turning around to place a small peck on Thomas’ lips. It took everything he had not to linger and glance at Thomas, who somehow managed to look amazing in his jogging pants and a ratty T-shirt. His hair was mussed up and he still looked slightly sleepy, but he was as gorgeous as ever.

The blond pushed past him softly, though, and put half a bun on each of their kid’s plates. “Careful, they’re hot,” he said, buttering Teresa’s and putting Nutella on Chuck’s. He knew his kid’s eating habits like the back of his hand. 

“Love me some hot buns,” Thomas laughed, slapping his ass as he walked past, and Newt rolled his eyes, glaring at his husband for just a couple of seconds. Fortunately the kids were young enough to not understand Thomas’ blatant innuendos. “So,” his husband said, sitting down opposite of their children and happily shoving his face full of bread. “What d’you guys wanna do today?” he asked, mouth still stuffed full, and nodded towards the windows suggestively.

Newt sighed, “Don’t speak with your mouth full and don’t try to indoctrinate our children to your barbaric ways,”

It was too late, though, because both kids were bouncing happily, having basically inhaled their food at the mere hint of a snow fight. “Snowballs! Snowman! Snow fort!” 

Newt forced a smile. “Fine, we’ll go outside.”

About an hour later he found himself wrapped in about five layers of clothes, looking at his three favorite people in the entire world tumble around in the snow. The kids’ cheeks were red and they were both squealing with joy as Thomas tumbled around with them, laughing and tickling them the best he could through the many layers of clothes. In the end he freed himself from the two small bodies piled on top of him and started forming a snowball.

“Tommy, don’t you dare throw that snowba-dammit!” Newt hissed through a mouthful of snow, glaring at Thomas who was now moving up in front of him.

“You’re such a grump,” Thomas laughed, leaning in and grabbing the edges of Newt’s scarf to pull him closer, “But you’re my grump.”

The long, soft kiss made the cold a little bit easier to bear.


	68. "I swear it was an accident!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minho has been trying really hard to get Newt to meet his gorgeous best friend Thomas. When he finally tricks Newt into doing just that, it really doesn't go as smoothly as it could have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on my [Tumblr!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) Come say hi!  
> 2\. I'm terrible, I'm sorry. I just really wanted to use this idea.

Minho had managed to rope Newt into meeting his friend Thomas was the absolute oldest trick in the book. He’d promised that he was hot. He’d shown Newt pictures, casually mentioned Thomas’ name about a million times, and he’d “casually” put up pictures of him and Thomas hanging out on his Instagram. Thomas holding a cute dog, Thomas at the beach eating an ice cream, shirtless Thomas doing a backflip on Minho’s younger brother’s trampoline. Everything that could possibly convince Newt to expose himself to the intense pain it would probably be to meet Minho’s friends, because if Minho’s best friend was in any way as lame and cocky as Minho was, he definitely wouldn’t be good for Newt.

Newt imagined someone with Minho’s shitty personality and Thomas’ good looks and he knew that the guy had to be trouble, and Minho certainly wasn’t about to bloody introduce him to a gorgeous guy without having some kind of ulterior motive. Minho wanted them to hook up, Newt had no doubt of that at all, and the problem was that he actually wanted to. The little he already knew about Thomas was adding up and making him seem like a better and better idea. Newt was tempted, but he wasn’t dumb, so he stayed away. It was the only way of shielding himself against awkwardness, because Newt wasn’t afraid of getting hurt, he’d been through heartbreak, but if he started something with Minho’s best friend he wouldn’t be able to avoid this Thomas guy afterwards and that was a disaster waiting to happen. Minho was one of his oldest friend, beaten only by Alby, and having to walk around on his tiptoes around him if he’d tried something with Thomas and it was screwed up somehow was just more drama than he wanted to let into his life. No, fortunately Newt was way, way too smart for something like that.

Which meant that when he finally met the notorious Thomas it was entirely by accident and only because Minho had tricked him. A warning would have been nice, really, because here he was, dressed in a pair of slim jeans and a ratty old off-white Fall Out Boy T-shirt, feeling like the hugest nerd that had ever excited, sipping his milkshake and trying not to make too much eye contact with the gorgeous brunet he was conveniently and totally accidentally (if the small talk he’d had with Minho at the counter a few minutes early could be trusted, which it undoubtedly could not) was seated across from.

“So, Newt. You’re a Fall Out Boy fan? Minho tells me music means a lot to you,” Thomas said, stirring his glass of milkshake slightly while looking at Newt, waiting for an answer. This meant that the blond had to make eye contact. Damn Minho and his ridiculous schemes.

“I am, yeah. I play the piano. Kind of odd mixing classical piano with Fall Out Boy,” he started, eyes flickering from Minho to convey how uncomfortable he actually was. He didn’t get any further, though, because Chuck (the little jerk) piped up.

“Newt does some really cool Fall Out Boy covers that he puts on Youtube sometimes! They’re really beautiful!”

Newt knew the kid was trying to be nice, to keep the talking going, but in that second he sort of wanted to slap Chuck. He didn’t want to bring anymore of Thomas’ attention to him, and even if he was proud of his covers, he didn’t like the thought of some stranger going home and watching them after they’d met. If Thomas had been a random stranger on the internet, that had been something else, but now Newt had looked him in the eye, Thomas had probably already formed an opinion of him, and that opinion would either feature in or be affected by whatever Thomas thought of Newt’s work – that was, if he even went home and looked it up, which Newt really couldn’t be sure he would. Maybe he wasn’t even interested enough to do that.

“Wow, that sounds really cool,” Thomas said, cocking his head ever so slightly to look at Newt. Curiosity was painted on his face although it was quickly replaced by a look of annoyance for a couple of seconds when Minho ruffled his hair and put an arm around his shoulders.

“Greenie here likes Fall Out Boy too,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at Newt suggestively, “And he plays guitar. Maybe he could be featured in one of your dorky covers, Newt.”

Newt raised his eyebrows at Thomas questioningly. “Greenie?”

The brunet wrinkled his nose and shrugged Minho’s arm off his shoulders, clearing his throat. “Yeah. My surname is Green. Minho seems to have trouble pronouncing it,” he started, shooting Minho a nasty glance before looking back to Newt, smiling softly, “But yeah, I’d love to do something with you one day. Minho has my number if you wanna meet up and talk. I gotta go for now, though, I have… stuff.”

Of course this meant that they were all breaking up, because apparently his entire group of friends must have been in on this. Goodbyes were said and in the end Newt stood there alone with Thomas and Minho. “I’m gonna get a smoke,” Minho said, winking at both of them exaggeratedly because he was such a bloody loser, “You two can figure out if you want to exchange numbers now and thank me later.”

“He doesn’t even smoke,” Thomas muttered.

Newt blinked. “What was that?”

“Uh. Nothing. Nothing at all. Will I see you around?” Thomas asked, and Newt nodded mutely. This was the most awkward thing he’d ever experienced in his entire life. This was the hottest guy he’d ever been standing in front of in the course of his relatively short life, and he was feeling like the biggest loser on the entire earth. He couldn’t even muster up the courage to ask Thomas for his number, so instead he moved in to give the guy a brief hug as a goodbye.

They seemed to have miscalculated, though, because Thomas was seemingly going for a high five (who even did that?) just as Newt started moving, which resulted in Newt getting a firm slap planted directly in his face.

“Oh my God, I am so sorry!” Thomas exclaimed, moving in quickly to check if he’d done any lasting damage and prying Newt’s fingers from where he was covering his nose. “Oh shit, you’re bleeding, oh fuck, oh shit oh fuck oh shit,” Thomas continued, grabbing at napkins on the table and holding them to Newt’s nose as gently as he possibly could while helping him sit down. “I swear it was an accident, I didn’t mean to hurt you I am so sorry,” he rambled on, moving to sit on his knees with his front to Newt and moved his hand to tip Newt’s head back ever so slightly. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Newt tried to manage telling Thomas that it was alright, but he only really got a muffled sound out and he thought he could hear Minho laughing his ass off through the window anyway so instead of trying to say anymore he just closed his eyes and wished he’d bleed to death for a bit. Thomas had a comforting arm around his shoulders anyway, so maybe it wouldn’t be the worst way to go.


	69. “Do you… well… I mean… I could give you a massage?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas has been trying really hard not to be creepy about his crush on his gorgeous roommate Newt. When Newt comes home with an extremely sore back, that doesn't make things easier on poor Thomas at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [petarparker](http://petarparker.tumblr.com)/[newtttheglue](http://newtttheglue.tumblr.com) who's basically one of the best people on Tumblr, yoo.  
> 2\. Extremely embarrassing stuff ahead, kids, this is not for those who are easily flustered.

Living in a house with a bunch of strangers was one of the bigger decisions Thomas had made in his life. It had been a big step from living alone with his mother for the majority of his life, but all the boys here were great. Alby was kind of the stern big brother type who tried to make sure that everything ran smoothly, Minho was kind of the annoying big brother type who’d ruffle his hair and call him Greenie instead of Green and you know, wrestle and try to give him dating and sex advice all the time although Thomas assured him several times that he didn’t need it. Then there was Chuck, a pudgy kid who adored Thomas above basically anything else, which was cool because Chuck’s dad was a computer programmer and apart from having every cool game ever the kid was also pretty chill. Gally was sort of an angry bloke, but Thomas thought he’d figured out that the bloke was just protective, and he seemed to have calmed down a remarkable amount as soon as he found out that Thomas had no intentions of hitting on his boyfriend Aris. Frypan was funny and for a small sum and the lot of them paying for the ingredients he cooked for the entire house.

There was the girls, Brenda, Sonya and Harriet. Sonya and Harriet were like the weirdest mix of sisters, lovers and friends Thomas had ever seen. They were the closest knit couple he’d ever seen, they knew each other inside out, and sometimes they even spoke in complete sync and it was really freaky. Brenda he’d known a bit from the beginning, seeing as she spent the majority of her time with her tongue down Thomas’ oldest friend’s throat. Teresa and her were sort of cute, sort of a terrifying force of nature. Thomas mostly steered clear of Brenda when Teresa was there, partly because he was terrified of what he might see, partly because he didn’t want to get in their way.

And of course there was Newt.

Right when Thomas had seen him, he’d actually thought that maybe the mushrooms Frypan had used for his stew were bad and that he was hallucinating, because surely wingless angels didn’t walk around only in a towel in their kitchen and exchanged pleasantries with the other boys in a gorgeous English accent and a concerned tone that left no doubt that he genuinely cared about each and every one of them. Thomas had been completely and utterly floored by the existence of such a magnificent creature.

After that he’d tried to steer clear for a while. Lusting after your roommate wasn’t a good thing, and he wanted to settle in a bit and get used to everything before handling that thing. Maybe Newt wasn’t as attractive up close, he couldn’t know, but he spent the first two weeks trying to make sure he didn’t test it.

After that it had all went wrong. Newt had cornered him one day, asking if he was alright and noting that he’d been quiet ever since he’d moved in. The genuine concern in those kind eyes as he asked Thomas if he wasn’t feeling welcome in the house had convinced Thomas that at the very least he had to make this guy his friend. He wanted a guy like Newt on his team. Besides, as long as he didn’t fall in love with Newt, it wasn’t going to be a problem, right? No, it would all be fine and Thomas could totally handle having a gorgeous roommate. Everyone in this house was attractive, actually, maybe even Chuck if he hadn’t been so young. There was a charm and a family-like atmosphere to the place that made it impossible not to like everyone, even Gally despite his general crankiness.

So Newt and him became friends. Thomas still tried to keep his distance but he could feel Newt rapidly crawling further and further under his skin for every passing day with those smiles that could make even the worst of days seem okay, his ever bright “’Morning Tommy, sleep well?” and his cursing and spitting and rolling his eyes when the rest of the friends didn’t get along. Thomas came to learn that apart from being an extremely caring guy, Newt had been through a lot of stuff in his life. He’d experienced hurt but he’d come out stronger and now he was putting his focus into making sure all of his friends were alright while he was playing basketball in his spare time and volunteering at the local animal shelter.

Because apparently fate had decided that Thomas was to be placed in the same house as the most amazing guy on earth – who also gave no indications to his romantic preferences what so ever. Thomas wasn’t about to push it, though, because Newt seemed busy enough without Thomas trying to pull a move on him. He was fully committed to the plan of not being a creep and hitting on his roommate. That was, until Newt tumbled in the door one day and instantly collapsed on their sofa face first – which just happened to be directly in Thomas’ crotch. “Tommy, uh’m wunnu wry.”

“Uh, what?” Thomas asked, closing his book and looking down, completely helpless as to how he was going to handle this situation according to his perfect plan of not being a creep.

Newt fortunately turned his head. Unfortunately he turned his face against Thomas’ stomach, which meant that his mouth only got closer to Thomas’ crotch. “I said, Tommy I’m gonna die.”

Thomas blinked again, delicately lifting Newt’s head and moving so the blond could lie down on the couch without his face directly on top of Thomas’ crotch, and sat on the edge. “What happened?”

Newt groaned. “My back is killing me. I think I made a wrong pass at basketball and then when I tried lifting a Labrador out of his bath today he started squirming. I just might bloody die from this.”  
  
Thomas was at a loss. What did you do when your incredibly gorgeous roommate claimed to be dying from back pains that you, being fairly decent at giving massages, could actually fix? “Do you… well… I mean…. I could give you a massage?” he muttered, some small part of him praying that Newt didn’t hear him. That way he would have made the offer and failed and that would be fine because that wouldn’t be torture. He wasn’t even certain Newt would take it, he didn’t know if Newt was aware that he was good at giving massages.

“Oh yeah, that would be great, Tommy, Teresa mentioned you give great massages,” Newt said, slowly as though he was just now realizing that that was an odd thing for Teresa to mention to him. Fucking Teresa and her big mouth. Thomas made a mental note of having a talk with her about boundaries and meddling in his personal life but pushed it aside for now in favor of shuffling out of the couch.

“Uh, we should probably…” he nodded towards the hallway that lead down to some of the rooms. He and Newt lived in the same hallway, which was great for movie marathons but bad for Thomas’ willpower because that also meant that he met Newt in the hall a lot and when Newt went to and from the bathroom in the morning and evening it was usually only in boxers or a towel. Newt nodded and Thomas reached down to help him up, pulling the taller blond to his feet and grimacing when Newt winced. “I’ll warn you, it’s not like I’m an educated physiotherapist or anything so if it doesn’t help you should go to the doctor tomorrow to make sure you didn’t seriously hurt something.”

Newt just nodded and flashed him a short, comforting smile. “I’ll be fine, Tommy, thanks for doing this for me though, and thanks for worrying. I could’ve just bloody taken better care to warm up.”

Thomas nodded. This situation was awkward. He knew that this would be absolute hell and that he’d managed to get into this situation all on his own. Only five minutes ago he’d been reading peacefully and now he was unraveling all his hard work of not being a creep to Newt. He closed his eyes for just a second as Newt walked into his room and prayed to God that he’d remembered cleaning up because he couldn’t remember for the life of him this exact moment. When he opened them again and followed, relief flooded through him. His room wasn’t a complete mess. Now the next step. Giving Newt a back massage without being weird about it. He could totally do that. No problem at all.  
  
He was just about to change his mind when Newt dropped his shirt without even looking back at Thomas for confirmation first and motioned to the back. “So, where’d you want me, Tommy?”

Thomas almost fainted at the implications his brain threw at him, but he managed to keep breathing. “Uh. Just on the bed. The bed’s fine. The bed’s perfect actually. Just perfect.”

‘Stop talking about your bed, you nerd.’

He shook his head slightly to clear it of the distracting thoughts when Newt dropped to the bed and put his hands under his head to keep it elevated from the pillow. “Like this?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Just like that.” Thomas muttered, scratching the back of his neck while he rummaged around with the other hand for the massage oil he knew he had somewhere. This was going to be hell, he was absolutely sure of it, although the fact that he wasn’t just standing there ogling Newt’s long, toned back was a miracle in itself. Maybe he could actually make it through this? Yes. He could make it through this. He was an adult male, it was okay to be attracted to another man, that was fine and he could make it through without any embarrassing situations. He could totally handle this. So he grabbed a hold of the bottle of oil and straddled Newt’s hips, getting comfortable with a leg on either of the Englishman. This would be fine. Thomas could do this. He warmed up the oil in his hands and moved to spread it a bit over Newt’s back before starting to work his back over to warm up the muscles. This would be fine. It was actually going quite well.

A long, heartfelt groan made his heart jump in his chest, “Bloody hell that’s good, Tommy,”

‘Oh no. Oh no, no no no.’

“Oh fuck, a little harder. Right there. That’s it.”

Thomas genuinely wanted to die right then and there. Anything but this torture, because if Newt was going to be this vocal through this Thomas was pretty sure all blood would leave his brain for such a long time that it might actually just kill him anyway. Getting it over with right away would at least mean Newt not figuring out that Thomas was perving on him. “Maybe try to keep your voice down a bit, Newt, don’t wanna disturb the oth-“

“Shiiiiiiiit you brilliant bugger, I love your hands.”

Thomas gulped, just about to try to tell Newt that he should keep it down again when he caught sight of his cell-phone lighting up at his night stand.

‘Thomas finally locked it down. It sounds gross as hell, but they’re DOING IT! Minho, beer duty, Brenda and me are getting snacks, Alby make sure Frypan makes a hell of a dinner tonight, this needs celebration.’

He was just about to grab for it and fling it to the wall in pure desperation when Newt grabbed it. “It’s from Teresa, she says… oh.”

Thomas almost wanted to cry. This was no doubt the worst thing that had ever happened to him in his entire life. He was absolutely and utterly sure he’d die from embarrassment right then and there when Newt squirmed and turned around, and Thomas couldn’t even be bothered to let the other guy know that he’d be getting oil on Thomas’ covers. “So. Our friends think we’re having sex.”

Thomas squeezed his eyes shut tight. “Might have something to do with the sounds you were making, Newt. They were pretty sexual.”

“Were they now?” Newt asked, his tone of voice a hint too innocent. Thomas’ eyes shot open and he looked at Newt, confusion spreading on his face.

“Why are you saying it like that?” he asked, only too aware that his pants felt just a tad tighter than usual and that Newt was looking at him with a slight smile playing at the corner of his lips.

A small shrug was the only answer he got from the gorgeous blond currently occupying his bed for a couple of seconds before Newt started sitting up slightly. “Well, Tommy, I’m not saying that the massage was sexual, but generally heterosexual blokes don’t get semis from massaging their mate’s backs. Also no heterosexual man has ever checked me out so much. You’re hardly subtle.”

Thomas’ head was spinning. “So you’re saying that you were…?“ he trailed off, sort of hoping that Newt would understand without him having to say it, sort of hoping he wouldn’t.

“Doing it on purpose to get you going? Oh yeah. That okay?”  
  
When Thomas didn’t answer straight away Newt pulled back a bit, giving him a bit of space, “Tommy?”

In the end Thomas did what he did best. He shut down the thoughts and leaned in, crashing his lips to Newt’s in a determined, desperate kiss, and it was good. It was the best kiss he’d ever had in his entire life, so good that he probably wouldn’t have noticed the sound of Chuck sprinting down the hallway yelling “You owe me money, bitches!”  if Newt hadn’t started laughing his ass of at the sound.


	70. "YOU DID WHAT?!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas got in a fight with his stepdad and stepbrother Gally while his mother wasn't home. It's a good thing Newt is there to comfort him and give him a safe space to crash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by an anon on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on my [Tumblr!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) Come say hi!  
> 2\. I kind of see this as like, Gally being extremely uncomfortable with everything new. Maybe he's a few years younger than Thomas and has a really prejudiced father. I kind of like the idea of closeted Gally trying to come to terms with himself and what he believes is right vs. what his father thinks is right so that's what I went with. I also like the thought of Thomas being reasonable enough to see that Gally isn't truly a homophobe but just a very, very lost boy. I love Gally a lot and this sort of angst is just something I have a hard time staying away from. Lil' Gally, so much potential character development *sighs happily*

The door to Newt’s apartment slammed and Newt looked up slightly to recognize Thomas’ silhouette walking into the room. The light was dim, actually just candlelight and loads of candles because Newt found it somewhat soothing to be reading in the candlelight. He enjoyed the mood and he knew that Thomas did too when his boyfriend could actually manage the focus to sit still for long enough to actually read something. So he just put his head back down on the couch and continued reading his book, relaxed and happy. For once in his life there was nothing going on in Newt’s life that could cause any sort of drama and it was wonderful. “Hey babe, what’s up?”   
  
Thomas was supposed to spend his evening with his stepdad and stepbrother because his mother wasn’t home. Visiting an aunt or something.  
  
“So, I told Gally to go fuck himself and that if I enjoyed taking a dick up the ass I would and there was nothing he could do about, which caused my stepdad to throw me out,” was Thomas’ opening line, and Newt actually managed to drop the book directly into his face (The Completely tales of Sherlock Holmes, it was a heavy one and he would really have appreciated if Thomas had taken that into consideration before dropping a bomb like that)

“Ow,” he muttered, picking up the book and putting it on the table after placing a bookmark in it. He sat up slowly, searching Thomas’ face for any sort of regret, though there didn’t seem to be any. Maybe he’d heard him wrong. “Come again, Tommy?”  
  
Thomas shrugged, “I think he was most angry about the swearing, really, he said I wasn’t welcome. Wonder what my mom will say about it. I mean, she likes you and she wouldn’t mind me being-“  
  
Newt blinked. Okay so he hadn’t misheard him. “YOU DID WHAT?!”  
  
Thomas flinched a bit at this. “I know, okay, I lost my head there for a second, you know how he gets to me, and I know he’s probably just freaking out because he doesn’t understand, I really doubt that Gally is a homophobe, I mean we’ve all seen the way he looks at Aris, but I just couldn’t stay there anymore after they said those things, and I honestly think Mr. Janson is a gross bigoted misogynist homophobe, I’m sure of it, Newt, I don’t understand what my mother is even doing with him,” he muttered, looking down to the floor, and Newt instantly moved to put his arms around his boyfriend and pulled him close, Thomas’ face pressed to his chest.  
  
“Ssch, calm down, Tommy, I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, I was just shocked that’s all. I thought you were going to make an effort getting along with those two.”  
  
Thomas just shrugged helplessly in his arms and Newt’s heart broke a little bit for his ridiculous, hot-tempered boyfriend. He knew that Thomas had a hard time wrapping his head around his mother dating Janson, the senator with the horrible, shitty personality and the even shittier politics. “I just couldn’t stand them criticizing my relationship with you.”  
  
Newt shook his head, running his fingers through Thomas’ hair. “It doesn’t matter. You can stay here until your mother gets home – it’s this weekend, right? Do you still have your key? We can skip school tomorrow and go get your stuff when Gally and Janson are out. Naya won’t mind you crashing here.”  
  
Thomas nodded slightly. Newt’s older sister was amazing. Newt lived at her place for close to no rent at all, and Naya’s husband was really nice about it too. Thomas liked both of them and he wouldn’t really mind staying over. “I’ll pay something for the rent, I have a bit of money saved up.”

Newt shook his head. “Don’t be ridiculous, Tommy, you’re not paying to stay here. I hardly am and you already have a key. I’ll explain what happened to Naya. Did you call your mom?”  
  
A slow shaking of Thomas’ head and Newt felt something warm drip on his chest. He sighed and moved to lie back on the couch, pulling Thomas with him and cradling the brunet close to him. “I don’t want to disturb her, I know she’s busy and I don’t want to worry her more. It can wait.”  
  
The blond sighed softly but made no comment. Thomas had a tendency of needing to protect everyone, including his mother even if that shouldn’t be his job. “Okay. It’s fine. Did you eat?”  
  
Thomas nodded. “Yeah. Got a bit of dinner before it all blew up.”  
  
A long, shuddering sigh left his boyfriend’s lips and Newt grasped him a little bit tighter. “You can borrow a T-shirt of mine to sleep in if you want to. You’ll be fine. Your mother won’t let them speak to you like this, Gally will come around, and maybe you’re even lucky that she’ll dump the wanker.”  
  
Fortunately, this made the sigh turn into a shaky laughter, and Newt himself smiled a bit and pressed a kiss to Thomas’ hair. “Everything will be fine, Tommy, I promise.”  
  
And Thomas knew that it would be.


	71. "Tell me a secret."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt's group of friends spend a lot of time together. In fact, it doesn't seem to matter what they do, as long as the whole group is together for it. That being said, they've never had a "high school sleepover" themed night before, and things seem to take a turn when the mood goes secretive and intense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Lmao this was so lame I'm sorry but not really.  
> 2\. Prompted by [thatgirlwhosdreaming](http://thatgirlwhosdreaming.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) on [my tumblr!](newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com) Come say hi!

Sleepovers weren’t all that uncommon in their group of friends. They were a lot of very different people, but that didn’t change the fact that they all cared very deeply for each other. What they did during these sleepovers varied. Sometimes they’d get one of Minho’s older brothers to get them booze, sometimes they made a reading club out of it, sometimes it was movienight or videogames, sometimes it was boardgames and sometimes they had absolutely nothing planned.

Tonight they were at Brenda’s, having raided her mom’s fridge for anything edible, and as soon as that had been consumed they’d ordered an almost inhuman amount of pizza.

Of course Chuck was the one who came up with the theme of the night, very rapidly supported by Rachel, Aris, Sonya and Harriet. Those three and Aris were sort of newcomers to the group, marking the end of an era where Thomas and his twin Teresa had been the new kids. They fitted in perfectly, of course.

“We could do like a girly night where we play truth or dare and 7 minutes in heaven and share secrets!” Chuck exclaimed, excitement clear in his voice.

A choir of protests erupted from the girls.

“Don’t generalize!”

“Not all girls are like the ones in the movies, Chuck.”

“Hey, guys tell secrets too, you gossip more than us, no question,” Brenda snorted.

It was Minho who surprisingly came to Chuck’s defense and put the discussion to rest. “Whatever, it could be fun. I could use some dirt on you shanks,”

Meanwhile Chuck was apologizing profusely until the whispers began to take over the room and the girls quickly forgave their curly haired friend after a firm talking to.

It didn’t take long before the secretive, intimate mood had settled and it was sort of strange but also more exciting than Newt had really expected it to be. That might just be because he was sitting next to Thomas of course. They were so close he could feel the heat radiating from the other guy. If he moved his hand just five centimeters to the right it would be on top of Thomas’.  
“Thomas, truth or dare?” Sonya asked, a big smile on her pretty face. If she hadn’t been so obviously into Harriet, Newt would probably have been jealous. She sent him a quick smile as she looked away from Thomas, and Newt shot her a questioning glance. She seemed like she was trying to communicate something to him.

“Dare!” Thomas exclaimed, predictable as always, and although it was a silly thing, Newt couldn’t help admiring it a little bit. They had some shitty friends and agreeing to do whatever they dared you to was pretty - well - daring.

Either way it wasn’t exactly surprising. Thomas had always been impulsive, at least for all the time Newt had known him. He sort of admired this quality in Thomas, even if it also annoyed him sometimes. Thomas had a tendency to get in trouble, and the brunet was honestly extremely fortunate that Newt was always there to help him get out of whatever mess he got himself into.

Newt couldn’t help him this time, though, because Sonya’s look was positively gleeful as she leaned in to listen to Harriet whispering something that made them both giggle and send Newt short, conspiratorial glances. 

“Thomas,” Sonya started, pausing for effect, and Newt wasn’t sure if he imagined it or if she actually sent him a brief, knowing wink, “You have to take off your shirt,”

Thomas just laughed, of course, and pulled off his shirt, revealing a toned chest to the sound of wolf-whistles that he just answered with a self-satisfied smile, the bastard.

“Newt,” Thomas (predictably) said and turned, a cheeky smile plastered all over his face. “Truth or dare?”

Newt squirmed and turned to face the jerk. “Truth,” he said, no hesitation. Thomas might be hot, but he was also a sly fucker and Newt wasn’t about to subject himself to Thomas’ mercy, or he’d end up giving Gally a lapdance or something equally horrifying.

“Have you ever had a crush on someone in this room?” Thomas asked, maintaining eye contact to a point where Newt briefly worried that someone had ratted on him. Thomas looked way too pleased with himself for such a simple question, but Newt wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he’d managed to embarrass the blond.

So he moved his hand a bit, clearing his throat and distancing himself a bit from Thomas before looking around. Enough of their friends had seen right through his little crush to make sure that he’d be called out on it if he tried lying, so Newt just shrugged meekly and nodded. 

“Yeah, I mean, we’re a pretty bloody close group, would be weird if I’d never had a bloody crush on any of you,” he pointed out and raised his eyebrows, hoping that it would be the end of it.

Of course it wasn’t, though. His friends were a bunch of assholes, so of course they started laughing and poking fun of it all. Maybe the douchebags were just hoping to draw a confession from him, which just had him crossing his arms over his chest and glaring around at them while the buggers settled down. In the end Newt turned to Brenda.

“B, truth or dare?”

Brenda sent him a quick wink and leaned back, resting her weight on her hands. “Truth. Definitely. You might look cute, Newtie, but I don’t trust ya as far as I can throw ya.”

Newt just flashed her a big smile and tapped his lower lip to signal that he was thinking. “First crush?”

Brenda rolled her eyes and nodded towards Thomas. “Easy. That loser. Last crush is even easier, though,” and with that she reached over and squeezed Teresa’s hand softly, prompting a smile from the otherwise stern-looking girl.

“Bit awkward that her first crush was Thomas too,” Minho jabbed,  trademark smirk in place.

“Yeah yeah, everyone here wants to screw Thomas’ skinny ass, we know, now move on,” Frypan demanded, laughing and clapping Minho on the back as though to distract him from the whole conversation, and Newt was thankful, really, when Frypan sent him a quick wink, because how many people wanted to or had wanted to screw Thomas wasn’t really a subject he was keen on discussing.

The conversations went on and Newt zoned out a bit, happy to have dodged the awkward situation that could have potentially evolved out of this. Thomas had leaned over closer, though, and casually placed a hand a bit behind Newt’s back, bringing them so close that Thomas’ (bare!) shoulder was pressing up against Newt’s own. And if that couldn’t snap a bloke out of his reverie, nothing could, that much was for sure.

“Getting a bit bloody close, Tommy,” Newt remarked under his breath and sent the other guy a pointed glance.

Thomas flashed him a quick smile, always at ease, never to be embarrassed, and shrugged. “Sorry, got a bit carried away there, I suppose.”

Newt shrugged and smiled back. He didn’t know exactly what to say to Thomas at this point, he just knew that he was feeling a bit self-conscious and he didn’t mean to be lame, but there was just something in him that constantly told him that the brunet would never want Newt the way Newt wanted him.

In the end his curiosity got the best of him and he turned to Thomas again. “Carried away?”

Thomas flashed him another one of those maddening, wide smirks. He leaned in, his mouth so close to Newt’s ear that goosebumps broke out on the blond’s arms. “Yeah. The mood, you know, it’s getting intense,” he pulled back a bit and Newt swallowed thickly, heart in his throat as he waited for the next words to spill over Thomas’ lips and wreck him. “Tell me a secret, Newt.”

The Englishman felt his mouth drop open just a bit, blinking. He had no idea when it had gotten this intense, but his heart was pounding and he was at a loss for words. Thomas was so close, close enough that Newt could count the golden flecks in amber eyes.

When no words came Thomas just grinned and moved his hand on top of Newt’s, gently lacing their fingers together, and the whole thing was so different from the heated look Thomas was sending him that he just went with it. “Maybe later then.”


	72. "Please don't do this."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas' mother has a condition and only a week after his first kiss with Newt, it gets bad enough that Thomas needs to move back home to take care of her. Newt shows up to say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) by [newtmas-delight](http://newtmas-delight.tumblr.com/).  
> 2\. This is sad but I promise it ends on a positive note.

Thomas blinked, looking up. He hadn’t expected Newt to talk to him again, not even to say goodbye. They’d beenb friends for a long time, and Thomas knew that his friend wasn’t good with goodbyes. He also knew that leaving now was a dick move.

Why?

Newt and him had shared a brief kiss the other day.

It had taken over basically his entire life ever since.

He couldn’t stop thinking about warm lips and soft fingers in his hair, tugging ever so softly on the locks at the nape of his neck.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the shaky chuckle Newt had given when Thomas had said that they should take this slow. He remembered warm eyes glancing into his without the barest hint of uncertainty, so different from the way Newt was looking at him now. “It’s not about you, Newt, I promise. It’s not because of… of that. My mother has gotten worse since my dad passed, and I just… I need to be with her, Newt. I’m sorry, it’s not because of that thing.”

Newt shook his head, a small, bitter smile gracing his lips. “You can call it a kiss, Tommy. We both know what happened. It’s okay. I just really don’t bloody want you to go. I… I was kind of excited to see where this could possibly go,” he shrugged, and Thomas knew his friend was trying to seem indifferent when he really wasn’t, and it tore him apart knowing that he’d hurt Newt this way.

He nodded and rubbed his forehead. “Look, Newt, I’ve been thinking about that kiss since it happened, and I meant it when I said that I wanted to try this, but my mom… please understand that I need to be with her right now. She doesn’t have anyone else, and I just…” even now as he was giving his perfectly reasonable explanation for having to leave, he still felt like he’d made a promise and broken it. He’d been looking forward to it too. He’d known Newt for long enough to know that he was in love with the other guy, which was why he’d initiated the kiss in the first place. He’d been wanting to for a long time and just as he’d mustered up the courage to do something about it this happened.

And now, with this, he could see how much his decision was tearing Newt apart, and he almost wished the blond hadn’t come here. He could tell that Newt was trying to be brave about it, and that made him feel even worse about himself. 

“Newt look,” he started, his own fingers through his hair just the ghost of Newt’s long, slender ones, “I’ve been into you as long as I can remember, and I was… It took me so long to muster up the courage to do that, and now I just hurt you. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry I waited so long.

Newt’s eyes were brimming with unshed tears, and if Thomas had ever wanted to punch himself in the face, now would be that time. It seemed like he just couldn’t say the right thing, and the self-loathing for hurting the blond only magnified as the tears in the other’s eyes threatened to fall. “I’ll visit. When I have the money.”

The choked laughter that escaped Newt sounded so broken Thomas had no idea what to do. He wanted to take Newt in his arms, but he was scared that would just make it all worse. 

“Yeah, and with the extreme amount of money you’ll make as an uneducated mechanic with half a degree in mechanical engineering - and that’s without mentioning the fact that knowing you, you’ll spend all your money on better treatments for your mother - that’ll let you come here every bloody weekend,” he snorted, sarcasm evident in his voice. “Don’t give a bloke false hope, Tommy, it’s not attractive.”

Thomas just smiled softly, shrugging. They both knew that Newt was right. He just didn’t know what to do about it. “I’m sorry I can’t stay.”

Newt nodded, chewing on his bottom lip slightly, “Maybe,” he trailed off, staring into thin air, and Thomas imagined he could see gears working above his head.

He cocked his head, unsure if he should try to push Newt to continued, but decided against it. Instead he busied himself coupling another pair of socks. 

“Maybe I could come with you,” Newt said, effectively catching his attention.

Thomas blinked. “You could  _what_?”

Newt rushed on, “Not as your boyfriend, of course, I know we’re not there yet, just like-”

Thomas held up a hand, silencing him with a shake of his head. “I can’t ask that of you, Newt. I can’t ask you to leave with me.”

Newt shook his head. “You’re not asking me, and I’m not offering anything to you, I’m just… speculating. I’ve moved before, I know how it feels. I’ve got the funds and I could transfer college. I’m not… you’re one of my best friends, Tommy. Even if we hadn’t kissed, I’d still consider going with you. I’m pretty bloody certain you could get me to go anywhere you wanted.”

Thomas had no idea what to say. The declaration of loyalty scared him and made his heart thump with happiness at the same time. So he just stared at Newt, struggling for words, until he realized that the search wasn’t worth the wasted time. Instead he took a couple of steps over and wrapped his arms around Newt, squeezing himself close. “You’d do that?”

Newt just nodded softly, slowly, as though he was still figuring out in his head if he actually would. “I think so. I’d need to get some stuff in order first, and I’d have to see the place, found out if I’d want to live on campus and if not, if there are any affordable flats that aren’t trashy,” he paused again, melting into Thomas’ embrace, “Maybe… Tommy, maybe I should go and visit you a couple of times and we’ll see? You can show me around and stuff. I have the money saved for a trip or two. I’d like to make sure this is a good idea before we do it.

Thomas nodded, drawing his face back from where it had been nestled softly in Newt’s fluffy mop of blond hair. 

“Thank you,” he said, and then they shared their second kiss.


	73. "Boo!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas is hung over, Newt is nice enough to make him breakfast. Three kinds of "boos" included.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I didn't really know what to do with this thing, so I went with boo the endearment, boo the scare-exclamation and boo the disapproving-exclamation.  
> 2\. Prompted by [newt-to-town](http://newt-to-town.tumblr.com/) on [this challenge!](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet) Two left, I'm proud of myself, I finished a challenge! Almost, that is.

“Boo!”

Newt’s heart instantly jumped to his throat, pulse beating erratically and fear cursing through him for the briefest of seconds before he realized what had happened and annoyance took over. He turned his best bitch-face to Thomas.

“For fuck’s sake, Tommy, that’s not funny! I almost got a bloody heart-attack!”

This, of course, only prompted another fit of giggles from Thomas. A small, vengeful part of Newt hoped that Thomas would collapse to the floor so Newt could “accidentally” kick him in the gut for this.

“Serves you right,” Thomas snickered (sadly) straightening up and looking Newt in the eye. “You knew I’m hung over. Blasting your horrid hipster music in the morning is plain cruel.”

Newt rolled his eyes, stepping to the side so Thomas could see the stuff on the frying pan.

“I was making you breakfast, you stupid bugger.”

Thomas had the decency to look vaguely apologetic, although the effect was sort of ruined as he made his way to the fridge and pulled a carton of orange juice out and drank straight from it for a long couple of seconds before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“That’s Gally’s,” Newt remarked drily, staring to load bacon, eggs and pancakes en masse onto two plates.

“Gally won’t mind, secretly he loves me and wants to have my babies,” Thomas stated, prompting Newt to snort, roll his eyes and pretend like he was gagging.

“I sincerely doubt that, Tommy.”

He wasn’t entirely certain he liked the joke, and Thomas’ bare chest didn’t exactly help the situation. The bloke really didn’t care much for shirts, and one would think that that amount of ego would be a turn-off, but it really wasn’t. If anything it was even more of a turn-on that the other guy was so comfortable in his own skin.

Newt placed the plates on the communal table, one in front of a very hungry looking Thomas, and one across from him at Newt’s own seat. Once again he wondered how on earth the bloke managed to stay so fit, because he practically inhaled his food as soon as it was placed in front of him. Disgusting.

“Thank you, boo,” Thomas mumbled around his food, and Newt wrinkled his nose.

“Boo? That’s so American. You’re an odd fellow, Tommy,”

Thomas just flashed him a quick smile, winked at him and shrugged, unaffected by the look Newt was giving him. “I just so happen to be American, Newtie,” he didn’t react to the frown Newt displayed at the unwelcome nickname. He might have gotten used to that and the judgy looks of course, because Thomas did a lot of weird stuff, and Newt almost always looked at him like he was the biggest idiot on the face of the earth. It was a very useful way of masking his true feelings for Thomas.

He couldn’t really run from the fact that he was in love with the bloke anymore, though. It would have been nice to be able to lie to himself about it, that much was true. Life had been a lot simpler before he started noticing how his heart would jump to his throat and his pulse would quicken when Thomas smiled at him. The way his skin tingled after Thomas’ fingertips had grazed his wrist of his shoulder and the way Thomas had started showing up in his dreams. Both the appropriate and the inappropriate ones.

“So,” he said, because apparently he bloody hated himself, “Did you get lucky last night, Tommy?”

Of course he regretted the question as soon as it slipped between his lips, and he wanted to punch himself in the face for being so stupid.

He didn’t want to know if Thomas had spent the night in someone else’s arms. He didn’t want to know if some other person had gotten to kiss Thomas’ lips, if someone else had made him gasp for breath, if someone else had dared to call him Tommy. It was selfish, of course, when Newt didn’t have the guts to make a move himself, but he didn’t want anyone else touching his Tommy.

“You know I love no one but you,” Thomas deadpanned, before winking quickly, “I’m still waiting for you to recognize and accept your undying love for me. If you, if you ever feel like some late-night cuddles I won’t mind if you just slip into my bed and wake me when you’re already there. Plenty of room for two.”

He waggled his eyebrows, and Newt rolled his eyes, desperately trying to hide the blush creeping onto his face from the way too welcome idea of getting to share a bed with his crush.

“That’s not funny, Tommy,” the blond snorted, missing a beat before going for some lighthearted teasing. “If you didn’t want to tell me about them you could have just said so, Tommy,” and he realized that something in his tone was off, but hoped that Thomas didn’t notice.

Of course he wasn’t that lucky, because Thomas’ eyes glimpsed with amusement. “Are you jealous?”

And newt could feel his face coloring yet again, because yes, he realized, he was jealous of the imaginary lover he’d come up with for Thomas, and if that wasn’t pathetic he didn’t know what was. “I might not wanna share you, Tommy,” he stated, pouring as much sarcasm into the statement as possible to mask that what he was saying was the absolute and utter painful truth.

Thomas raised an eyebrow, slowly putting his fork down and studying Newt’s face carefully. Newt swallowed thickly. He was in trouble now. “Is that so?”

The blond opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before scowling when Thomas stood up, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“It was a bloody joke, Tommy, don’t make a big deal of it,”

Thomas had moved closer, and Newt stood up himself, not about to let Thomas have a height-advantage on him now if he was going to get humiliated. He felt like he was backed into a corner, and Thomas’ next words didn’t help the case.

“That’s not nice, making a guy think that you care as a joke. That’s pretty cold, Newt,” and Newt would have felt bad if Thomas hadn’t had that god-forsaken bloody smirk plastered on his face that told Newt that the idiot was enjoying this.

All that aside, of course his brain shut down completely when tentative fingertips graced his cheek and Thomas’ naked chest was suddenly very close to his own. Was it getting hot in here? “Because I sort of get the sense that you were serious,” yes, definitely getting hot in here, “You should probably correct me on this if I’m wrong, because if I’m not, I’m planning on kissing you in three, two, one…”

And then heavenly soft lips were on his, and Thomas tasted like orange juice and syrup and it was glorious. Newt was pretty sure he could spend his entire life kissing Thomas and-

“Boo! Boo!” Frypan yelled, his voice disapproving as he was obviously just entering. “Not again! Y’all are nasty,  _not_  in my kitchen!”

Newt blinked. “But we didn’t-”

“But Gally and Aris did, and Teresa and Brenda did, and Sonya and Harriet, and Jeff and Winston-”

Thomas took Newt’s hand and dragged him towards the door. “Ooookay, we’re leaving, you weirdo,” he laughed, and just as the door was closing behind them, a traumatized mutter followed, “And Minho and God knows who.”

Newt blinked again. “Did he say Gally and Aris?”

Thomas shook his head quickly, looking slightly queasy. “Leave it, trust me.”


	74. "I got you a present!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas is notorious for his amazing presents. He got Newt one that is not his cock with a bow on it, which is actually quite a dick beal. I mean big deal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by the amazing, wonderful, lovely [dontfuckwithmyotps](http://dontfuckwithmyotps.tumblr.com/) who you should definitely consider following on [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet).  
> 2\. Wow, one left, I actually finished something?!

“Newt, I got you a present!”

Thomas’ excited voice echoed through the apartment. He sounded way too pleased with himself, and Newt fortunately had the good sense to be worried. He knew his boyfriend too well to expect anything good from this amount of excitement. “Tommy, if it’s your bloody cock with a bow on it again I swear to God-”

“You don’t believe in God,” Thomas remarked cheerfully, all but skipping into the room and pacing a small peck on Newt’s cheek. “Besides, you shouldn’t criticize a present that you took so much pleasure in.”

Newt rolled his eyes and turned to glare at his boyfriend. That didn’t prevent he blush from spreading across his face and neck, and the gold-specked amber eyes really made it hard to stay annoyed with Thomas anyway, so in the end a soft smile slid on Newt’s face and he swirled the chair around and faced his boyfriend completely. “A present?” he inquired, cocking an eyebrow towards his Tommy although he couldn’t exactly hide his excitement. Thomas was notorious for giving great presents - when he didn’t forget and put a bow on his cock, that was. “What is it?” he prompted when Thomas didn’t answer immediately, and Thomas sent him a broad smile, reaching into his pocket.

“I got a raise and a bonus at work the other day, and my boss agreed to give me the next two months in advance, so we’re going on a vacation!” he exclaimed, and Newt was pretty sure if he had his hands free, he’d be clapping with joy.

Newt, of course, was very aware that he was staring at Thomas like a blind man seeing the light for the first time, which was way more reasonable than it sounded, because he’d never actually been on a vacation before.

He’d moved, but apart from England and here he’d never seen anything because his mother simply didn’t have the means to take two children traveling. Thomas hadn’t really travelled a lot either, Newt knew that much, and that was why it meant the world to him that his wonderful, impulsive boyfriend would spend his hard-earned cash to take them both.

“Say something,” Thomas urged, looking slightly nervous, and Newt blinked, eyes searching Thomas’ amber ones for any indication that this was some sort of lame, horrid joke. When he found none, he finally opened his mouth, closed it again and looked down for a second to hide the stinging tears in his eyes. When he looked back up he finally found his voice, albeit still a little shaky. 

“What?”

He hated how fragile his voice sounded, but of course Thomas just beamed at him and pressed the envelope into Newt’s hand. “Take a look for yourself,” he encouraged, moving to sit behind Newt on the desk and spinning the chair a quarter a round before pulling the blond closer to nestle sideways between hi legs. Newt looked at the envelope for a couple of seconds, irrationally scared of what he might find there, and opened it with shaking fingers.

“Tommy,” he started, trailing off as he realized that it was actually legit. “Wait, Cuba?! This must have been so expensive, Tommy, you shouldn’t-” he started, trying to protest but effectively shut up by Thomas pressing their lips together.

When he was done he just shrugged, his smile taking a smug tone to it, and he leaned in to press a kiss against Newt’s temple. “Wasn’t that bad. Aris’ new boyfriend Gally got us a sweet deal on a hotel and flight combo. It’ll be good,” he paused for a second, “It  _was_  Cuba that you’ve always talked about, right?” for a brief moment he sounded worried, and Newt rushed to place a quick kiss on his lips, turning his head as quickly as he could so he could silence Thomas’ doubt in the most effective way possible. 

“Cuba is exactly what I’ve always wanted. It’s perfect, Tommy, I can’t believe you did this.”

Not even Thomas’ shit-eating grin could distract him from the happiness and pure joy that was coursing through him at the prospect of this trip. 

“So, I take it that you won’t be mad that I also got you my dick with a bow on it then?”

Newt rolled his eyes softly and smirked into the kiss. “You’re bloody ridiculous, Tommy. I might not mind that much after all.”


	75. "You're the only one I trust to do this."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas needs help ironing his shirt so he can ask out this guy he likes. Newt helps although he's not pleased with the thought of Thomas asking out someone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted by [this lovely person](http://hopedreamssoul.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr as the very last installment of [this challenge](http://newtmasdoesthedo.tumblr.com/post/112983779265/send-me-a-number-ill-write-you-a-newtmas-snippet)! This was so fun to do, thank you to all fifty of you prompting these from me! It's been a blast! :D

Newt sighed and rolled his eyes, unimpressed (but not really) with the puppy eyes Thomas was currently flashing him. “That seems a tad dramatic, Tommy. You should have taken me up on it when I offered to teach you,” he stated drily, inwardly wondering yet again why he was actually friends with the piece of trash that was one of his dormmates.

Thomas pouted, and if there was one thing Newt couldn’t resist, it was those huge, amber eyes flashed at him, liquid gold begging him to take mercy on his dorky friend/crush. “Please?”

Newt sighed once again, more dramatically this time to properly establish his annoyance and took the button shirt from between Thomas’ hands and went to find his ironing board. When it was set up he looked at Thomas, straightening out the very wrinkled shirt as well as he could with his fingers before starting to iron it. “What’d you need it ironed for anyway, Tommy?”

Thomas squared his shoulders a bit and shot Newt a quick glance, worrying his bottom lip for just a second before shrugging, apparently realizing that he wouldn’t get out of telling Newt what it was for if he expected his friends to do his ironing for him even though he was a grown ass man. “I’m going to ask someone out on a date and I want to look good. I know that… uh, this person, appreciates when people’s clothes are neat,” Thomas explained, once again squaring his shoulders slightly as though nervous Newt would laugh at him.

Of course there was the ever-present stab of jealousy. Newt couldn’t really hide the fact that he hated the thought of Thomas with someone else from himself. But there was also a soft sort of ache, because it was adorable that Thomas cared for this person’s opinions enough to actually do something about the way that his clothes was always in disorder. Newt had commented on it several times and even adopted the habit of straightening them for him until he realized that his fingers tended to linger. Then he’d abruptly stopped because he didn’t want to be a pervert and touch Thomas when he felt about him the way he did. “That’s… that’s actually really nice, Tommy,” he ended up saying, realizing that he’d been silent for way too long when Thomas turned his head away, obviously uncomfortable or something.

Of course that instantly drew forth that beam of pure happiness that Thomas loved so much. “Thank you,” and Thomas sat down in front of him, perched on the edge of Newt’s desk, and Newt had to get a hold of his unruly brain before it started presenting him with different scenarios where he was between those legs.

“So, who’s the lucky girl or guy?” Newt asked, raising his eyebrows. Thomas’ bisexuality was well-known to everyone in their dormitory, and no one really minded. Newt didn’t care about which gender Thomas dated, he just cared that Thomas dated someone who wasn’t him.

The thought of Thomas holding someone else’s hand, kissing someone else’s lips and whispering sweet nothings in a stranger’s ears was downright painful, and Newt didn’t actually want to dwell on it. It was just hard when he was sort of expected as Thomas’ friend to ask him about this in order not to seem weird.

“I can’t tell you, I want it to be a secret up until I get up my courage to ask. Thanks for helping me, though, I really want to make my chances the best they can be. I really like this guy.”

Newt swallowed thickly and nodded, going for a reassuring smile although he kind of wanted to punch himself in the face with the ironing-board. “That’s nice, Tommy,” he muttered, and briefly considered wrinkling up the shirt just so he could prevent Thomas from getting extra credit with this bloke. He quickly shoved those nasty feelings down and smiled as softly as he possibly could. He really wanted to be happy for Thomas, he did, but hiding his emotions was becoming rapidly harder.

Thomas beamed at him and gave him a quick hug, seemingly without having noticed Newt’s conflicting feelings, and then he let go. Way, way too soon. Newt caught himself wishing he’d held on for just a little longer, and he filed that together with the other unwelcome emotions that Thomas’ proximity always inspired.

“I’ll see you,” Thomas said, and Newt basically felt like he’d been slapped. He wanted to take Thomas hand and tell him to stay, but he also knew that he couldn’t. He also didn’t want to hear about how Thomas asked someone else out when the brunet came back later that night, probably over the moon because whatever lucky bugger he’d asked had been stoked for a chance to date someone like Thomas. “Will you be here all night?” Thomas asked, and the hopefulness in his voice made Newt’s heart clench.

He didn’t want to lie to Thomas, but he knew that he had to. He couldn’t keep a straight face while listening to Thomas ramble on about some other guy. “Sorry Tommy, I’m out in a couple of hours. I need to… work.”

Thomas blinked. “Uh. Okay. I’ll run off then.”

And with that Thomas was gone.

Newt wanted to cry.

Of course he didn’t plan on going out or working at all, but on sleeping and trying to ignore the fact that Thomas was probably sucking faces with some pretty bloke. It was a horrible thought, and he was going to burrow himself under his duvet forever, so when there was no one in the hall, he snuck out to get ready for bed, and straight after he tip-toed back to his room and collapsed on his bed. While pulling his duvet up to his nose and squeezing his eyes shut he wondered how sadness could make him feel this exhausted, and he was almost ready to let sleep take him when there was a knock at the door.

Newt just sighed and opened his eyes, turning on the night light. It was probably just alby, and his best friend had seen him in his boxers a million times, what with them having lived together for years. It didn’t matter much. “Come in, mate,” he called, hoping that he could get Alby to leave pretty soon so he could let sweet, blissful sleep take him.

Of course Alby wasn’t the one who walked in his door. There was Thomas. With an assortment of wild flowers in one hand, a bottle of white wine and two glasses in the other (Newt silently admired how Thomas administrated so much in his hands at the same time) and a shy smile on his face. He was still wearing the button-shirt Newt had ironed for him earlier, and the blond’s chest ached at the memory. “Hi Tommy, how did it go?”

Thomas’ smile grew a little wider. “I thought you were at work, but Chuck told me he saw you go in here, so I wanted to catch you before you went to sleep.”

Newt shrugged meekly. “Wasn’t feeling up for it.”

The brunet glanced quickly at the bottle of white in his hand and put it on the table. “Oh. Sorry. I just… I’ll make this quick and then I’ll get out of your hair,” he promised. Only then Newt realized that the bottle was still closed.

“Oh no, Tommy, did he say no? I’m so sorry,” and he was. He was genuinely sad that Thomas had put himself out there and had been rejected. He felt a small surge of protectiveness for his friend. Anyone would be lucky to have Thomas.

Said friend just smiled sheepishly and shrugged, moving closer. “Uhm, I guess I’m about to find out. Newt, will you go out with me?”

And with that Newt’s world fell apart in the best of ways. “You can’t be serious?”

Thomas nodded. “Deadly serious. I didn’t want to spoil the surprise earlier. I guess it’s kind of embarrassing that I had to ask the guy I like to iron my shirt so I could ask him out, but you know, I just-”

He inched a bit closer, which was a good thing, because that gave Newt the last bit of help he needed to grab onto Thomas’ shirt-collar for dear life and pull him close enough to crash their lips together in a short, fierce kiss. “You stupid bloody bugger, Tommy, I thought you were asking out someone else, I’m going to fucking have your ass if you ever freak me out like that again.”

And the idiot actually had the audacity to laugh against Newt’s lips, sliding into the bed with him and shuffling around until he was comfortably settled in Newt’s lap. “That’s kind of what I was going for, you know.”

“Cheeky bugger.”

The flower petals were a mess the next day, it was hell to clean up, but doing it together while the sun shone in through the windows and with chilled white wine to keep them going it was a breeze. Or at least it would have been if they hadn’t needed so many breaks for kissing.


	76. I guess I never missed the stars as long as I had you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Right after Teresa leaves after she and Thomas shares their kiss at the scorch, there's only one person to pick Thomas off of the ground, and it's the person who's always there, who always has the ability to make everything okay again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Quick warm-up snippet before I go to slay my big bang fic.   
> 2\. Requested by my bubba [richardharmun](http://richardharmun.tumblr.com/post/119431624894/newtmasdoesthedo-okay-im-going-to-do-a-newtmas)

“I’ll find you.”

Even as the words died on his lips Thomas knew that he was probably making a promise he couldn’t keep. After all, it had always been Teresa who found him. He couldn’t even bring himself to leave the little shack. He had no idea if she’d left already, but he couldn’t move. His legs refused to obey him, and he felt a little nauseous. Maybe it was a good thing that he hadn’t eaten for a while or he might just puke over himself before he made it back to the others. He squeezed his eyes shut. None of the others had ever trusted Teresa, and here it was. Yet another piece of proof that they might be right. 

He didn’t want to believe it. The lingering romantic feelings for who he was rapidly growing more and more certain had been his best friend were subsiding as he grew closer to Newt, but that didn’t change the fact that he was sure he’d once loved her. They had a connection, he just knew it, and her being controlled by WCKD - how much was an act and how much was Teresa actually, truly thinking that WCKD did the right thing?

He didn’t know anymore, and that made his heart sink to his stomach. “Looking a little green… Greenie,” a familiar voice remarked, and Thomas put the back his head against the horrid shack, unwilling to even open his eyes. He didn’t have to, though. Newt’s voice, the thick accent, it had all become so familiar. Familiar enough that a surge of guilt that he’d just kissed Teresa ran through him.

“I kissed her,” he stated.

Only when Newt didn’t say something for a while Thomas opened his eyes. He turned his head to look at the Englishman now seated next to him. “I can understand that, I s’ppose. She’s pretty,” Newt remarked, and there was a guarded hurt in his voice that made Thomas feel even worse. He really was an idiot.

“I don’t know why I did it. She’s not prettier than you are.”

A bitter laugh and a shrug was all the answer he got for a while. Newt didn’t even look at him, his gaze preoccupied with the night sky. “I don’t know why I never missed the stars in the maze. I guess they did something to make me not think about why they were never there,” Newt mused, his voice quiet and pondering, and Thomas took that as a sign that he was forgiven. He really didn’t deserve Newt.

He didn’t raise this point right now, though. Couldn’t, more likely, so instead he shuffled over until his body was like glued to Newt’s side. The blond turned his head and smiled at him sadly. “Are you in love with her, Tommy? That’s all I need to know.”

Thomas shook his head. “No. I think a part of me was once, and I’m not sure what WCKD is doing to me, but it’s hard to let go of that part of my emotions when I don’t know what caused it. It’s not her that I’m in love with, though.”

That seemed to be the right thing to say, because Newt reached over and pulled the brunet into his laugh, nuzzling his face into Thomas’ hair. “I should enjoy you being relatively clean for the short while it lasts, I s’ppose. Doubt we’ll stay un-smelly and well-groomed for long out here,” and his arms tightened around Thomas, and Thomas knew that wherever Newt was, he’d still have his safe harbor, no matter what they were put through. “That being said, Tommy, you’re not going to kiss her again. Ever.”

“Promise.”


	77. Wouldn't change a thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Newt have had their adopted toddler Marco for almost 5 months now. It's a lot of work but it's definitely worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Prompted "DOMESTIC WITH A KID" by [adictedtobadguys56](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Adictedtobadguys56) as a quick warm-up before writing on my Big Bang fic!  
> 2\. Unbetaed, bit on the short side.  
> 3\. I hope you liked this, love, I just couldn't resist Newtmas with a toddler.

The rumor that becoming a parent meant lighter sleep so you’d realize if your child was crying had always seemed like a bit of a joke to Thomas. Until he got a child, of course. Marco was 13 months old and had been abandoned when he was 8 months old. Newt and Thomas had adopted him very shortly after. The system had proved effective for once, and it was a good thing that they’d been through every possible kind of test to ensure that they were fit for parenting (of course the thorough testing was on account of them being a male/male couple, as even the most horrid straight people seemed to be able to adopt with no one asking questions). If they hadn’t been, Thomas might have doubted it, because when Marco started crying at 2 o’clock in the night for the 17th - no, 19th, he corrected himself mentally - time in a row, Thomas wanted to tear his hair out. He wanted to cry. He hated this. He literally wanted to shove his pillow over his head and ignore the heart-breaking sound and just die here because he was halfway in his grave anyway with sleep depravation. “It’s your turn,” Newt groaned next to him, and Thomas wanted to cry even more. He didn’t, though, instead he pulled himself together and sat up, running his fingers through his hair and yawning, tired to the bone, before walking over to Marco’s crib and picking him up carefully.

“What’s up, little buddy? You alright there?” he asked, rewarded by another high-pitched wail from the child. “Okay okay, stupid question, fine,” he muttered, and a small smile played on his lips when he heard Newt’s soft snort of laughter from the bed. “We’ll go get you some food, buddy,” he stated, after holding Marco up and smelling his diaper. Nothing there. Phew.

“Bring it in here,” Newt called after them, sitting up in the bed and turning on the night light. Thomas loved him for his solidarity. He went out in the kitchen and started heating a bottle of formula that Jeff had assured them wasn’t bad for a child Marco’s age.

He hummed to Marco softly as he walked around, the microwave beeping shortly after and he got out the bottle. He didn’t bother to check the temperature. He’d done this too many times to have to, he’d perfected this routine a long time ago, besides, Newt would check it when he walked back in the bedroom anyway. Thomas knew he would, so he didn’t have to do it himself. Instead he focused on trying to calm Marco down enough to get him ready to eat.

He moved to hand Newt the bottle as soon as he was in the bedroom and settled down in bed, holding Marco to his chest and rocking him, yawning while Newt checked the temperature as Thomas had known that he would. “Perfect,” the brunet flashed his perfect blond a quick smile before taking back the bottle and holding it in front of Marco’s face. “Here you go, buddy,” he muttered, and he may be tired, maybe even exhausted, but the look of those dark brown eyes peering up at him and greedy, small hands reaching up for the bottle while a wide smile spread on the little face made it all worth it.

Newt was leaning on his shoulder, eyes closed, halfway sleeping, and Thomas just enjoyed the moment, letting their son eat while he enjoyed having the two most important people in his life so close to him. Even in the middle of the night with exhaustion pressing down on him like a heavy blanket, this was a moment he’d never want to miss.


	78. Save the last dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt hasn't danced since he injured his leg during a routine. Now his friend/crush Thomas is doing a thing with the school and Newt hasn't ever seen him dance before. He's quite surprised at what he finds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Based on the prompt "Person A catching Person B dancing to some lovely classical music and asking to dance with them" by [ithinkthiswasabadidea](http://ithinkthiswasabadidea.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr as a quick warm-up for my writing session today!  
> 2\. Unbetaed as all my snippets are.  
> 3\. I feel absolutely nothing about this. I don't think it's bad, I don't think it's good, but it's here and since I don't hate it I thought I'd share, haha. (I'm dead inside today)

Newt hadn’t danced for several years. He’d managed to injure his leg in a particularly advanced routine and that had been the end of his dancing career, to his great bitterness and anguish. He’d loved dancing, which was probably why he’d hadn’t been in any of the many plays the school set up since. There was always dancing and he’d always participated until that day, and now… well, now watching everyone else doing routine just seemed like a way to torture himself, and Newt did that plenty already. Cursing himself for that stupid mistake of not warming up enough to prevent his injury had become part of his daily routine to a point where some days it almost seemed like something he did just because he’d done so for several years now.

 

So finding himself on the steps leading into the theatre department was strange to him, but something had lead him here. Maybe it was because today had been particularly horrible, what with all of his friends rambling on and on about that thing Thomas was supposed to be in. Newt wasn’t jealous as much as he was sad that he wouldn’t get to see it. Apparently Thomas was quite the dancer, something Newt had never actually expected, and he really wanted to go, but he also knew that watching someone else get to dance – particularly Thomas, what with Newt’s feelings about the other bloke being extremely complicated – would mean days (maybe even weeks) in a deep, black hole.

 

But now he was here, and he sort of felt like it would be cowardly not to at least take a peek in there. Besides, there was some sort of classical piece playing, and he wanted to see the pianist.

 

Except it wasn’t a pianist, it was a ghetto blaster, and on stage someone was dancing. _Thomas_ was dancing. And he was dancing quite expertly at that.

 

To say that Newt’s body moved without him even telling it to might seem like a cliché, but that was exactly what happened. He found his feet carrying him closer to Thomas, and before he knew it he was right in front of the stage, close enough for Thomas to finally notice that he was there. “Teach me that dance?” he blurted, only saving himself from seeming like a rude idiot because of the questioning note in his voice.

 

Thomas had come to a complete stop on the stage while the classical piece was playing on, and Newt made a mental note to ask the brunet what he was dancing to. Right now, though, Thomas was sending him that wide, happy smile and holding out a hand. Newt grabbed it and was pulled up on the stage, way easier and more fluent than he would have thought Thomas capable of. Newt had admired a lot of things about Thomas since they first met, but he’d never really thought of him as particularly grateful. Apparently he’d been extremely unobservant, or he’d just focused on the wrong things. He felt his face colour a bit at the thought, but shoved the feeling of growing nervousness away. This was Thomas. His friend.

 

His friend that he’d had an inappropriate crush on for quite a while now, but his friend none the less. His friend that he’d made an almost inhuman effort to stop crushing on for about two years now. He cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean to spy, I just sort of ended up here,” he stated, receiving a small wink from his friend.

 

“Didn’t think you were,” and with that Thomas took a firm hold of Newt’s waist and grabbed his other hand. “It’s a good thing that you showed up, actually, the concept is basically a ghost dance. We’ll be a bunch of people on the stage dancing but none of us will be dancing with anyone. So it’s gotta look like we have partners, but we won’t. Maybe I can perfect some moves if I have someone to dance with. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that before,” he mused, looking into the far distance as though he was figuring out something extremely difficult. Newt’s stomach did a small somersault. He hadn’t danced for a while. If this routine was too hard he might make an ass of himself in front of Thomas. Not something he was keen on doing. So instead of worrying he pulled himself together, shoved his insecurities aside and focused on the one thing that could make him stop the endless train of negative thoughts that sometimes ran rampant in his mind. Thomas, his eyes, the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he cracked a smile. It was sappy as hell, but there was something about Thomas that made Newt feel like things were going to be alright. As though he could be himself, flaws and all, and Thomas would still never judge him. He wasn’t even certain Thomas could _see_ that he had flaws, and though that probably wasn’t entirely healthy in a friendship, it still made him feel good.

 

“You’re oddly quiet,” Thomas remarked, waiting out the last bit of the song before it started playing again, and without any further ado he started moving to the music, obviously expecting Newt to just follow his moves.

 

The blond would have shrugged, but couldn’t without messing up their rhythm, so instead he just flashed Thomas a quick smile and looked down, focusing on not messing up. He fell into the rhythm fluently, as naturally as though he’d never stopped dancing, and he was actually a bit surprised that it felt so easy. Of course it had something to do with the fact that they were dancing kind of slow (he refused to let himself think of it as slow-dancing because it sort of was but it also wasn’t and he’d basically demanded that Thomas danced with him, so it didn’t actually count). It probably also had something to do with the fact that Thomas was leading and supporting him with a strong arm placed firmly on his waist. “Just… a weird day. Nothing to worry about,” he stated, wanting to assure Thomas that everything was absolutely fine – and realizing himself in the process that it was. He was okay. He didn’t feel sad or angry or bitter, he was doing alright on the dancing, even if he suspected that Thomas was going easy on him. “I didn’t know you were this good a dancer,”

 

The brunet chuckled and spun them in a slow, graceful movement that made Newt’s heart jump a little. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

 

Newt cocked an eyebrow. “Like what?” and was promptly swept over the stage in slow, deliberate movement that he suspected was slowed down a bit so he could follow them without stumbling.

 

“Like I was really sad when you didn’t want to come to the thing you’re currently practicing with me for, because I really wanted you to see me dance and realize that I’m a good dancer,” Thomas started, slowly coming to a halt and removing his hands from Newt’s hand and waist. “Like I sort of wanted you specifically to come because I value your opinion a lot.”

 

Newt nodded slowly, taking in Thomas’ words, and made a quick decision. “Okay, Tommy. I’ll come to your bloody show,” and at the grin Thomas sent him, Newt felt his heart beating just a little bit faster, “If you’ll come to dinner with me,”  
  
This seemed to take Thomas off guard, which Newt noted with a hint of a smug thrill, even if he’d never admit it. Of course there was nervousness too, but if Thomas said no he’d be able to play it off as a “I just want to spend more time with my friend” sort of thing, and Thomas was too good, too trusting of him, always had been, so he would probably believe it and forget about the whole thing in a couple of wee-

 

“Sure, I’d love to have dinner with you. You up for another round?”  
  
Newt hadn’t even noticed that the melody had reached it’s end and begun again, but he just nodded, a smile spreading on his face that was much wider than he remembered any smile being in a long, long time.


	79. Skinny dipping in the dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas almost convinces Newt to go skinny dipping, but then something changes the mood, and Newt thinks it's for the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. [tutselutse](http://tutselutse.tumblr.com/) replied to your post “Prompt me a Newtmas snippet, pls?”  
>  _Skinny dipping!!! Maybe Newt is reluctant, but Thomas is persuasive?_  
>  2\. Unbetaed, as all my other snippets, lol.  
> 3\. Wow, I know, it's a marvel, I'm actually writing again, this is insane. I'm getting a bit teary-eyed just realising that I can still actually write, wowie.

 

His heart was pumping in his chest, and maybe he shouldn’t have actually gone this far, but Thomas’ hand was clenching his, and his heart was all but in his throat, and Newt simply couldn’t help himself. “Tommy, we’ll get caught!” he hissed under his breath, but his infuriating, beautiful, beaming friend just squeezed his hand and pulled him along.

“We won’t get caught, Newt, there’s no one here right now. It’s just a damn community pool, there isn’t even any camera equipment here, I promise,”

Newt barely managed not to roll his eyes. “Do I even want to know how you know that?”

A soft laughter and Thomas stopped suddenly, pulling him closer, all but aligning their bodies and pressed his lips to the blond’s. “Probably not,” he muttered, warm breath smelling faintly like mojitos and sunshine and something not entirely forbidden but not entirely right either.

They’d been friends for years by now, and Newt failed to recall when Thomas had first kissed him, when they’d started skating the line of their friendship and it had turned into something strange and beautiful and just  _more._ He knew he’d never change it back even if he could. Even if this all crashed and burned and wrecked anything, he found himself addicted to this exhilarating, ridiculous, amber eyed angel that had pulled him into a warm embrace and warmed his very soul.

Thomas was intoxicating to him, and even though Newt could list a bunch of ways this could go wrong, he didn’t actually want to stop it, and when Thomas started pulling his shirt of his head the blond’s breath hitched ever so slightly. He’d yet to see Thomas naked, but apparently now was it, and he was at a loss for words as mole-dotted, sunkissed skin was bared to his eyes and had to swallow thickly when Thomas gestured for him to take off his.

“Tommy, I…” he started, hesitating because of the scars lining his lower arms, and he felt his shoulders pull up a little, feeling his own expression growing guarded, and he turned his gaze to the ground. “I’m not…”

And then there was that familiar warmth, arms wrapped around him, holding him so close it almost hurt, and Thomas’ face pressed into his clavicle. “Don’t start this again. Please tell me this is not about you thinking you’re not attractive.” Thomas demanded, and Newt closed his eyes and buried his nose in the soft hair smelling faintly of almonds and vanilla.

He swallowed again, taking a long, steadying breath and stepping away from Thomas a bit, relieved that Thomas let him go without any protestations, because he wasn’t sure he could hold onto the shred of courage he’d found if his friend didn’t let him go immediately. He shrugged out of his shirt unceremoniously, nothing like the seductive way Thomas’ shirt had ridden over taut abs and revealed broad shoulders. He didn’t have anything of value to show off. Thomas was like a wrapped present, ever-appealing and intriguing and more attractive for every layer of him Newt managed to peel off.

The silence made his skin crawl with nerves, and he finally managed to look at Thomas, who was staring at him with his mouth hanging slightly open and wonder in his eyes. Newt made a move to wrap his arms around himself, and within seconds the brunet was in front of him again, softly taking a hold of Newt’s upper arms and pulling him in for a hungry, insistent kiss. When it was broken liquid gold eyes met his, and there was a softness in them that made his cheeks heat up. “Holy shit, you’re so fucking beautiful,” Thomas whispered, and Newt felt goosebumps break down all over his body when Thomas’ forehead rested against his, unable to break eye-contact, unable to find something to say, because where he’d normally claim that Thomas was lying, there was something in those amazing eyes that promised him that Thomas was speaking the truth.

“You’re not so bloody bad yourself, Tommy,” he breathed, moving a hand to rest at the side of Thomas’ neck.

“Have your phone on you?”

Newt frowned. “What? No I left it back with the others, but you can forget about it either way, I’m not taking a shirtless selfie with you, Tommy, that’s just- aaah, what are you  _doing,_  you moron?!”

The arms clenched underneath his kneecaps made it impossible for him to actually squirm out of Thomas’ hold, and he made an embarrassing squeaking sound when he realised what was going on. “I swear to God, Green, I will bloody kill you if you-”

“Hold your breath!”

“No, Tommy, do-”

And then there was water all around them. Fortunately he knew Thomas well enough to have actually held his breath when the idiot jumped, and their heads weren’t under water for a long time before he was up and gasping for air and met by that ridiculously playful smile. “You’re such an idiot,” he groaned, but that didn’t seem to discourage Thomas from getting closer, pushing him against the edge of the pool and pressing another long, intense kiss to his lips.

“I might be. But I’m your idiot,”

And Newt realised that Thomas was absolutely right. Thomas was his, and he was Thomas’, and they’d never even had to say it out loud until now. “So sappy, Tommy."


	80. a smell of roses and home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something very distinct about Newt's tattoo starts changing when Newt meets Thomas. (Soulmate AU)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Insp.](http://seaweedbrain97.tumblr.com/post/134193809783/retiredvoldemort-soulmate-au-where-everybody-is) \- “Soulmate AU where everybody is born with a simple tattoo on their wrist. Acircle, a straight line, a dot, etc. When you start interacting with yoursoulmate it starts getting more complex. Your first kiss, leaves grow. Yourfirst time, flowers sprout up. Get married, swirls fill your arm.”

When Newt had first met Thomas, the simple square on his wrist had slowlystarted morphing. He’d been worried, at first, wondering why small holesappeared right at the middle of every side of it. Maybe he was a bit slow tofigure out what was happening at the time, but he’d been caught up with hisown problems, trying desperately to tame his demons one at a time.

When it started growing instead of lessening, he’d started to figure out whatwas going on, but it was so slow and steady that even this obvious tell-tale signhad taken him a while. Thomas had entered his life through Minho, theircommon friend, and as the amber-eyed boy with the annoying, kissabledimples and the thousand upon thousands of questions about everything andnothing integrated himself into Newt’s life as seamlessly as though he’s alwaysbeen missing, the tattoo grew and grew. It worked its magic, slowly morphingfrom straight lines into longer lines, twisting, winding, creating some sort ofintricate pattern that Newt hadn’t been able to figure out what was at first.

Of course it was Thomas who noticed what was actually happening. One day,sitting next to Newt and splitting an order of nachos (yes, Newt realises howextremely trashy it sounds that he realised he was in love with his friend overnachos drowned in salsa and guacamole, thank you very much), Thomas’fingers started tracing one of the lines, and chills broke out all the way downNewt’s back. “I never knew your tattoo was supposed to be a maze. It’s prettycool how you got vines and stuff added,” he noted, face close enough toNewt’s skin that the Englishman could feel his breath ghosting over thegoosebumps that were breaking out there. “When did you go? I haven’t noticedbefore now,”

Being a slow worker, not very well versed in the world of romance, it had takenNewt several months from that first ridiculous, stuttered, lame-ass excuse untilhe finally admitted to being in love with Thomas. Yes, he’d admitted it beforethey even had their first kiss. Cheeks burning, gaze shifting, hands sweatingconfession of his love, and when he’d looked up, the cheeky bastard had justbeen there, laughing at him, amber eyes twinkling with understanding, andbefore he’d been allowed to even ask the snappy question that was dwelling onhis lips, Thomas had thrown his body against his, and the kiss had quite literallytaken his breath away, so only what seemed like the most beautiful eternitywithin eternities Newt finally broke away, and as his chest was heaving forsweet, sweet oxygen, he looked down to see what the strange tingling down hislower and upper arm was. The vines that had started crawling from the maze onhis arm so long ago had burst into intricate patterns of leaves and flowers inevery stage from mere buds to full bloom, and maybe it was the lack of oxygen,or maybe it was just Thomas’ smile, but for just a second, he was certain he gota whiff of roses and something that smelled inexplicably like home.


	81. some die young,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in Paradise. Thomas has a child with Brenda that wants to hear the story about two boys and the world she was spared of knowing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I'm back and I'm still an asshole.  
> 2\. Obviously unbetaed and rough. I basically just went with the angst and the feels.   
> 3\. I made myself cry so I mean.

He’s told the story more times than he can remember. Maybe the little girl in his lap can tell, instinctively, as it tends to be the way with small children, that somewhere in his story she will find key to why her father always seems so sad.

“Tell it again, Daddy,” she begs, her soft fingers in his shirt as though with urgency, as though the story will disappear if he does not tell it to her straight away. As though the story isn’t edged inside his brain, every excruciating moment.

“Once upon a time, long before this, there was a boy. One day he woke up, found himself where he knew no one and nothing, only his own name. He was scared and confused, he couldn’t make sense of anything,” as always, when he tells the story, he feels himself drifting off into the land of memories, the pain fresh and sharp as ever, but the words feeling strange on his lips, as though he’s wording another person’s memories. “There was two people that helped him through, that showed him kindness from the very first day. Chuck and Newt,” the words still sting on his lips, and it’s only for the sake of that little, amber-eyed wonder, that he prevents his throat from closing up.

Her eyes are locked fast on his face, and it’s been a long time since he tried hiding the way his eyes grow misty from her. She needs to know that it’s okay. That if you love someone and they’re taken away, it’s okay to be sad.

The story has its tweaks, of course. He could never bear to tell her of the Grievers, of the stinging, but he makes his way through, slowly, the burning in his eyes and his throat a punishment he will never stop inflicting on himself. 

_I should have saved them._

The mantra of this miserable life that has ironically been dubbed Paradise. Thomas has a family. He has Brenda, he has Teresa, his last nod to his best friend and first love, the tiny child that looks at him as though he’s a hero, and not just a guy that huddled through everything on the backs of the people he should have protected, the people whose deaths will always weigh on his shoulders.

“He would always lend a hand, Newt, pick the boy up when his legs wouldn’t work, comfort him when he felt bad, tell him to stay courageous when all the boy wanted to do was give up. He was the boy’s light, his strength,” for a second he buries his face in the little girl’s hair, inhales and steadies himself. “Then they found out Newt was sick,” 

She makes a wounded noise, as though she’d known Newt herself, and Thomas wants to mimic it. She always makes the noise, and Thomas always thinks to himself that she would have loved Newt. Of course that would be an entirely different world. He tightens his grip around his daughter and swallows thickly around the lump in his throat.

“They did what they could. They spent weeks trying to find a solution, a way to save him,” he says, words rushing over his lips, because that’s the only thing he has left to hold onto. 

_I tried. I tried. I tried. I failed. I know I failed, but I tried, Newt, I did what I could to save you. I would’ve dragged you here, Crank or not, if you’d let me._

“And in the end Newt got too sick. He didn’t want to keep going. He asked the boy to help him out of his misery even if it meant he’d never see his friends again. The boy didn’t want to leave him, but in the end he had to for Newt’s own sake even though it broke his heart.” 

A soft hand pats his hand. “It’s okay, dad, maybe he found Newt again someday.” 

Thomas forces a smile. “Yes. Maybe he did.” 

“Or maybe he will.”

“Yes. Perhaps.”

Seconds stretch into a minute with the two of them silent, Teresa in deep thought, Thomas caught up in his own desperate emotions. “Daddy?”

He blinks and meets eyes that are so alike his own. “Yes, angel?”

She purses her lips, thoughtfully, furrowing her brows and cocking her head, just like her mother. “Daddy? They were in love, weren’t they? Newt and the boy?”

And it’s like something breaks inside him. She’s never asked him this before, this tiny miracle, his reason to keep going, and for a second he just holds her tight, his face once again burrowed in her hair.

“Yeah. Yeah they were,” he murmurs, tears spilling hotly onto the dark hair.

“Why were they just friends?” the sense of wonder in her voice makes his heart ache even worse. 

A comforting hand finds his shoulder. Brenda. Her presence eternally comforting.

He clears his throat and slowly sits up. “It was too hard, I suppose. They didn’t see clearly. They didn’t know what was important until it was too late. Maybe if the world had been different,”

Brenda slowly takes the girl from his arms, easily sensing he needs his space, needs time to delve into his emotions without having to hold himself together. “Time for bed, baby,” she declares, and Teresa waves at her father, a soft smile on her face and reaches over to pat his cheek, “Don’t cry, Daddy. I still think the boy found Newt.”


End file.
